Jinchūriki's Angel
by Dylan Millwood
Summary: Cus nearly breaks apart in grief after her Universe gets erased by Zen-Oh. Saving her from falling is the spirit of Hamura, who offers to take her to a Universe BEYOND the control of Zen-Oh. And in that Universe is a certain orange Jinchūriki with the potential to be a God...
1. Chapter 1

Cus was a wreck.

"Ah ha ha...Gone!...It's...Ahhh ha ha ha... all gone. All of it's gone! Bye-bye! Whoo! See ya! Ahhhh ha ha ha ha!" the female angel laughed, tears in her eyes as she hugged her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth. "Alone...all alone...nothing left...heheheeheheeeh!"

After Universe 10 was erased, taking with it the trillions of lives in that universe, including her superiors and comrades following Universe 10's defeat in the Tournament of Power, the loss of those whom she respected, cared about, and was emotionally attached to; gods, mortals, and all of the Universe she had been assigned to, despite her own life being spared and leaving her the sole surviving inhabitant left of Universe 10; the sadness, grief and remorse had started to drive her insane.

Her father, the Great Priest; and her siblings Awamo, Sour, Campari, Cognac, Cukatail, Vados, Whis, Korn, Mojito, Marcarita, and Martinu all found it somewhat revolting. Angels were supposed to be indifferent to practically everything for a reason, after all.

"She always was lacking in the apathy necessary to serve as an attendant to a God of Destruction. No wonder she can't handle her entire universe being erased like it had." Mojito sniffed dispassionately.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." a new voice said and the angels whipped around to see a transparent individual.

A spirit, one of a tall and pale-skinned man with hairless brow ridges and white waist-length hair. His bangs were short hung to left side of his face with a chin-length lock which hung from the right side of his face. He also had small, horn-like protrusions on his forehead and large, white eyes that lacked a iris or pupils, so he looked like he was blind. He wore a light, full-length kimono with a pattern of six black magatama around a high collar and dark pants. He had his sword in its sheath strapped to his left hip. He also had a dark crescent-moon mark in his left palm.

"Hamura Ōtsutsuki, at your service. And as a person that has seen the harm caused when those that are powerful embrace apathy, I say again: you say she lacks apathy as if it were a bad thing." The horned man said, both as introduction and as an explanation for his earlier comment.

The angels frowned. At last, Whis sighed. "Our apologies. It's just...we serve as the attendants to Gods of Destruction. We have to numb ourselves to the things our duties incline so you have to understand, we're required to work with deities who destroy planets, races or threats that pose risk to the development of their respective universes, as opposed to the Supreme Kais, the Gods of Creation, who create and fill planets with life, in order to maintain the balance of creation and destruction in the universe. Apathy is an unfortunate requirement on our part."

Hamura frowned. He understood it...but in no way at all did he like it. Looking over at Cus, he shook his head. Poor girl...he went over and crouched in front of her so their gazes were level. "You going to be all right?" he asked, already having an idea as to her answer.

"No...Everyone and everything I knew is gone! What am I supposed to do, go back to where Universe 10 was and just float around aimlessly in a void?! I HAVE NOTHING LEFT!"

Hamura sighed. First thing was first, had to repair her mind to where she was at least coherent and cogent enough to where she at least understood what was going on around her before he did what he came here for. Placing the fingertips of his left hand into her head, making use of how he lacked a corporeal constitution, the spirit sent some of of his energy into her.

As it entered her, the fractured look left her eyes and she gasped, jerking away. That proved a mistake as the sudden action left her disoriented and her head started throbbing.

"Ready to go?" Hamura questioned.

"Go where?" Cus asked, still woozy.

"The universe I'm from. Might do you some good. Think of it as a vacation." the moon-marked specter replied.

"What about this...other universe's...assigned gods, then? And I highly doubt Zen-oh-sama will permit this, so what's to stop him from erasing this place?" the attendant of Zen-Oh asked.

"No Gods were assigned to this one. This "Omni King" of yours has no authority there." The Ōtsutsuki replied with a shrug.

As the majority of his children gasped in sheer shock at that, the Great Priest frowned deeply, his eyes narrowing. Universes _beyond_ Zen-oh's authority?! That could just not be allowed.

Shaking off her discomfort, Cus, by contrast to the rest of her family, openly perked up. A place Zen-oh couldn't take away away?! Oh...that sounded like it was just what she needed!

"Can we go there now!?" She said, almost begging.

The nod she got in return made her cheer.

Placing a hand as close to being on the surface of her shoulder as he could without his hand slipping through her, Hamura channeled energy into it so he could at least simulate touch. Then, with a swell of his power, both of them were enveloped in a blue aura and vanished, Cus waving good-bye to her siblings and father as they did so.

* * *

Reappearing, Cus found herself floating in the air of an Earth-like planet, though they seemed to be located somewhere in the country, if the dirt road and how rural the area was.

Turning to her brought her here, Cus yelped as she turned to look at Hamura. He'd changed, aged! His appearance was very frail, his ribcage was slightly visible, his brows became more prominent, and he had deep wrinkles in his face and his once white hair had turned grey.

"Hmm...seems I used too much power..." the horned man said with a frown, holding up a hand to his face and clenching and unclenching it, not sounding surprised.

"Wha...then this is my fault!" Cus gasped, horrified.

"Don't worry yourself. On extended time anyway. So this was bound to happen sooner or later regardless." he assured her. Then he looked up, veins suddenly bulging around his eyes. "Seems we aren't alone here. Good thing people tend not to look up. And one of them is...well..." he trailed off, chuckling, "...that's interesting indeed." he turned to Cus, "Young lady, as much as I wish otherwise, I'm afraid here we must part. Don't worry...seeing who's coming, I can rest assured you'll be in good hands."

Confused, Cus followed his gaze as she saw two people app. One was a tall and well-built man in the later stages of adulthood with fair skin. He had a wart on the left side of his nose and waist-length, spiky white hair that he had tied back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. There were red lines under his eyes, going all the way to the bottom. His attire consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armor that was visible at his wrists and ankles. He also wore hand guards, a black belt, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side. He carried a large scroll on his back, and he wore a headband on his forehead with a horned, metal plate attached to it and had the kanji for "oil" engraved on it.

The other was much younger man, at least in his teens, if she guessed right. This person was tall with nicely tanned skin, marks on his cheeks that resembled three whisker marks on each cheek, and bright yellow hair that was spiky and stuck up in all directions like the spines of a sea urchin. He had on a slim, form fitting orange tracksuit outfit with black on the upper shoulders area and the color extending from around the neck and shoulders, down the front and sleeves, as well as around the waist, a white swirl on the left side, a red swirl crest on the back, orange pants, but his sandals that covered the instep and ankles, yet left his toes and heels exposed and the pouches at his waist and thigh were black. So was the headband he had on around his forehead with a metal plate and swirled arrow symbol of some sort, this one lacking horns.

The angel blinked. What were those two humans doing here? Turning to Hamura, she nodded and he smiled. "One last thing, angel: If you should discover a reason to do so, do not let the world my elder brother created come to an end." he said before fading away.

Curious as to what the one had brought her here had meant with all his comments when those two mortals arrived, she suppressed her energy so they couldn't sense her and decided to eavesdrop from on high.

"Oi, Ero-Sennin! Why're we way out here?" The young blond asked.

"Well, brat we're going to try using Kyuubi's chakra again...brought you out here if you were to loose it again after getting you to transform by loosening the seal." the old man said.

Cus' eyes widened. Was that old man insane?! You couldn't forcibly manipulate a transformation like that!

"Say WHAT?! Ero-Sennin, are you NUTS!? Last time...!" The blond said in sheer alarm, unknowingly agreeing with her.

"I know what happened last time, Naruto, but this'll be different. I have a safety measure." the 'Ero-Sennin' said. Then he smacked the young man in the forehead with a piece of paper, the paper tag appeared to be stuck on the boy's forehead and he screamed as his energy suddenly spiked.

As it did, the old man spun on his heels and bolted.

Cus stared. He ran?! THAT was the old guy's "safety measure"?!

Cus tore her eyes away from the trailing dust cloud left in the man's wake as the blond boy, Naruto, gave a thundering yell of both anger and pain as his skin started tearing off his body and the blood gushing out from the resulting wounds that mixed with the swirling dark red, nearly black, layer of energy underneath, tainting the entirety of his body as it enveloped him in a crimson shade that served to make the appearance of fur but the consistency looked almost liquid in nature. The skin burnt up like lit scarps of paper as soon as it left his body and the energy formed a purple dome around him, like an eggshell or a chrysalis, then a beam of red energy shot upward and with it the orb violently exploded in fractured black disks of energy, white on the insides that dissipated into the air, leaving nothing behind and exposing the entity generated by the metamorphosis to the world.

Were the once orange-clad boy once was, stood a humanoid-shaped, fox-like creature made from a chaotic red energy. The nearly-black energy covering his body entirely in a tight, intense shroud that sleekly took the form of a beast around a human body. Four swirling tails weaved behind him lazily, like in a trance, while long, almost rabbit-like ears came from his head, and the nails of his hands and feet had become claws. His eyes had turned ghastly, glowing, pure white whilst his mouth transformed into a cruel, glasglow, jack-o-lantern maw, rigged with knife-like teeth the inside of that glowing white as well.

Sensing his energy, Cus winced. This...this was horrible! Whatever that old man's stupidity had forced the boy to become, it had to be stopped or who knew how many innocents would die!

With that thought in mind, the angel steeled herself and lowered to the ground. Firing a basic ki blast, she wasn't surprised when it was bat away by one of the transformed boy's tails almost casually. But the blast did it's job and got his attention since the beast turned to her.

"Glad I have your attention now," Cus spoke up to the bestial Naruto. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry if what I do hurts you, but I can't let you go on a rampage that could harm others."

Naruto roared at her before he kicked off the ground, cratering where his hind legs pushed off as he made a furious swipe of his claws at Cus. She levitated a couple of inches off the ground as soon as he kicked off, floating backwards to avoid him while also leading him further away from other energy sources she could sense. Based on their low levels, she deduced that they had no way to defend themselves and would die easily if Naruto's uncontrolled state targeted them.

As Naruto's arm swung at her, the pressure of his aura washed from it like a tidal wave, mixing with the kinetic motion of his limb, resulting in a shockwave being sent outwards.

Cus zipped up in the air as the shockwave passed under her and she went back down, knowing she had to keep Naruto's attention fixated on her so she had to stay directly in his sights. Sure, it went against everything she knew as someone that had served as a martial arts teacher to Gods, but if he wasn't occupied, he could just rampage until innocent people were caught up in his power overload-induced frenzy.

She frowned sadly at him, comparing his current form to something that only needed to be _aimed_ ; not controlled. It labeled him as a weapon, and she could never view a living creature in that manner.

If she was really going to have another chance at aiding a different universe, then she was going to put her all into it. And to start that, she needed to get Naruto to calm down.

His four tails of bloody red energy made to spear her all at once, but she batted them aside with her staff. Her somber frown remained as she used her hand to easily bat away another claw swipe before her eyes widened and she ducked beneath a copy of his upper body that spawned from the outstretched limb and attacked her as well.

"Limbs able to stretch and grow, but it seems to put extra stress on his body..." Cus noted as the duplicate retracted and Naruto withdrew his arm as she peppered him with ki blasts while back-pedalling from him as they bounced off the energy carapace.

"Protective red aura, too; but it shortens your lifespan by means of constantly damaging and healing your body in a cycle...how awful. Poor thing...this form hurts you, doesn't it?" she whispered sadly, looking upon him with pity. "You never wanted this power, did you? I'm so sorry…"

Naruto snarled before he let out yet another savage roar, but this time as he did so, several orbs of what appeared to be energy separated from his body and melded into a gigantic dark sphere in the sky.

Cus stared at the ball floating. The orb was so dense that it was even casting a shadow on everything below it. Then, the sphere started turning smaller and smaller, compressing the energy even further every time, until it could fit in the palm of a hand. Once it stopped shrinking, the small ball slowly descended towards Naruto and he promptly swallowed it.

For a moment it looked like nothing was going to happen until the boy's whole body bloated like a balloon before he opened his mouth and released all the condensed power stored inside, shooting it towards Cus in a straight line.

She held out her staff as the orb on the end glowed. As the beam Naruto had fired zoomed at her, it came into contact with the orb on the end of the staff, but rather than it being destroyed, the staff seemed to suck in the blast in until the attack dissipated completely and the orb stopped glowing.

Sheesh...that technique was no joke. Good thing that among the several other very handy features, there was a pocket dimension that an Angel could use to pull any kind of being into, whether fellow gods or mortals, when they so choose to inside the orb of the staff.

"Powerful move...but from what I can tell, the prep time is an issue, and you have to remain stationary to use it. Not to mention that while the energy is forced out of your body and while you're condensing it, you're vulnerable. Swallowing that mass of energy could damage your internal organs, not to mention forcing it back up can't help in that regard, either. Also, the ratio is an issue...energies need a certain ration for it or else it can backfire."

Having seen enough of him attacking her like a wild animal, she blurred into existence right in front of his face, placing her palm against his forehead. She ignored how his energies attempted to corrode her skin and energy, focusing her attention on his eyes to convey her desire to help him.

"Rest now," she spoke softly, spreading her power through him to quell his raging energy and sooth his berserker mentality. He screamed as the energy started to recede back into a marking on his stomach.

Once the malevolent aura was completely gone, Naruto slumped forward, unconscious from the exhaustion and the damage that using that power had caused. He would have hit the ground if not for Cus catching him and easing him onto the ground. With his head in her lap, she ran her fingers through his hair to help ease him into a more comfortable rest; a small smile present the whole time.

The boy had returned to normal, save for his raw pink flesh, as his skin had not fully regrown yet, so she set to work on fixing that. She smiled as her power started working and his natural form restored itself. Good thing she had decided on learning to heal others from even the most grievous wounds using her ki. Why her siblings refrained from doing likewise, she didn't know.

"Hmm...all in all, I grade you at a B. You're control's lousy, but you're at least aware of that and want to avoid using more than you know you can handle of that power." Cus mused. "Have so much power, you always try to stay unblooded by making sure not to kill anyone, and you're aware of the danger someone with your power getting used to having to numb out the feelings that come with taking life. Strong enough to be a God of Destruction, but moral enough to keep from just running rampant with your power...gotta confess, for an angel attendant like me, the fact that you're aware of that is actually a very good thing."

Studying him as he finished healing, the angel bit her lip. It was very tempting to pet those cute whisker marks on his face...she shook her head to dispel those thoughts...there'd be time for that later! He was still hurt, after all. With that fact in mind, she continued to use her ki to tend to him. She was NOT going to allow this boy to die. She'd lost too much as it was.

She winced at that. Those thoughts reminded her of those whom the two Zen-Ohs had taken away from her.

Rumsshi-sama...Gowasu-sama...Murichim...Lilibeu...Jirasen...Methiop...Napapa...Rubalt...Jilcol...Obuni...Jium...All of Universe 10...

It HURT remembering that! Damn the Omni-kings! Zen-oh and his "future" self! Damn them both! And damn that chimp-teme from Universe 7, Son Goku, too! The turnoment was his idea! Wait...should she damn him? After all, Goku had ended up giving the universes a chance to survive with the tournament...

Shaking her head, Cus realized she was getting caught up again in the feelings that had started to push her to insanity. Sure the Ōtsutsuki had pushed those things back, but there was no telling just how thorough his repairing her sanity had actually been, and those feelings were still there. If she wasn't careful, they could sneak up on her again and shatter her.

Realizing she needed something to distract herself from the unwanted path her thoughts were treading, Cus turned back to her patient. What she saw next and what it would mean she'd have to do wasn't going to be nice. Not only had the sheer heat from the power he'd used bleached his clothes, but the blood had been speed-dried by the aura he'd been enveloped in, super-heated it, thus bleaching, and nearly fusing of what had once been fabric to his body.

She shook her head...oh, poor Naruto. This wasn't going to be pretty. Channeling ki into a fingertip, she trailed it along what had once been his clothing, cutting into it like a super heated scalpel. Now came the worse part...

Still unconscious, Naruto yelped out in pain as Cus pealed the super heated pieces of his former attire off of his body, inflaming nerves still raw from his need to regrow his skin With fresh waves of pain she wished she didn't inflict. Cus continued removing another portion of the now ruined clothing. Cus winced at seeing Naruto gritting his teeth as another piece was pealed off of him. Grimacing, Cus bit her lip as she had pulled yet another piece off of him, and continued to do so until he was completely bare (something which caused Cus to heat up in the face). A quick application of materialization fixed that with a pair of orange boxers to hide his modesty from view, along with gauze wrappings around most of his body.

Tapping the butt of her staff against the ground, she took the materialization a step further, causing Naruto's bandaged form to suddenly be clad in an outfit that consisted of a dark blue-grey robe with grey lining and a fur collar, and a tattered grey-blue cape emblazoned with the emblem of a mandala comprised of nine reddish-brown circles of varying sizes atop a larger green-grey circle. Along with that was a fighter's gi that consisted of a sleeveless dark grey uwagi that had a large symbol of a light green circle, surrounding another circle but it was a slightly darker green, and on top of the darker green circle, were three lines that looked like stretched out "M" shapes above each other on the back and on the front-left was a smaller version of the same symbol; a long-sleeved black undershirt with a turtleneck, a red sash, black pants, fingerless opera-length black gloves wrapped in studded red-brown leather straps, and red-brown boots with dark red toe caps, held on using high-quality velcro strap fastenings. Finally, as a finishing touch, over his face was a white kitsune noh mask with three ringed eyes that were colored red.

Looking at it, Cus nodded in satisfaction.

It was a duplicate of the outfit that sanctimonious fallen Shinjin, Zamasu, used after stealing Goku's body and started calling himself "Goku Black".

Where she got the idea for the white kitsune mask, dark blue-grey robe with grey lining and a fur collar and tattered grey-blue cape emblazoned with an emblem of a mandala comprised of nine reddish-brown circles of varying sizes atop a larger green-grey circle. Or the fingerless opera-length black gloves wrapped in studded red-brown leather straps... she didn't know. But she felt it was a cool-looking addition to the outfit, and who knew, maybe in some mirror universe, Naruto or someone he Knew would have worn something similar.

As for the red boots with dark red toe caps, those were based off of ones she'd seen that had been created by Whis for Son Goku during and after his training under her brother as part of a gi he had worn during the Universes 6 and 7 Gods of Destruction Selection Martial Arts Competition (yes, she'd seen the video of that on GodTube), just a different color.

And that symbol of a light green circle, surrounding another circle but it was a slightly darker green, and on top of the darker green circle, were three lines that looked like stretched out "M" shapes above each other on his gi? Easy...that was the symbol of Universe 10.

That done, Cus held one of the pieces of his former attire up, staring at it contemplating just how much power he had. That question in mind, Cus reached out with her senses, she took a second to get a feel for his power and what she felt stunned her, for along with a much less savage power that she assumed was him in his normal state, there was also that heavy energy from before and it felt like it was not his; but alongside that was a bright sliver of power that was deeply linked to the blond. 'What is that?'

Frowning, Cus picked up her attendant's staff, she decided to get to the bottom of that by making use of the staff's function to project images from both the past and present. Zoning in on that sliver of power and tracing the feel of it through time by backtracking, her eyes widened in alarm.

WHAT IN THE...?! How far back did that power she was focused on go?! It was far too long to be only a single mortal lifetime.

But then...that would mean that he was part of some kind of reincarnation cycle! If that was true, then the sheer potential that Naruto had at his disposal was enormous; especially if he could tap into the abilities, skills, and memories of the lives prior to his own!

With that in mind, the angel eagerly dove back into her observations, backtracking as far as possible. When she stopped at the very first flicker of that power she sensed in him, she began to watch what she assumed was his first lifetime. As she did so, her eyes brightened with excitment.

Asura, huh? Well, that was interesting...

Being angels, Cus and her siblings had usually kept up on the various pantheons mortals had. As well as having an eye out for anyone with the potential to be a new God of Destruction.

Despite their immense power and longevity, Gods of Destruction were known to be capable of dying. Due to this, their angel attendants would seek out and train potential replacements. The candidates did not have to be of a divine race as mortals were selected as candidates if they possess adequate power. Because of that, unlike Angels and the Supreme Kais, whom they work alongside and with, and whom were all members of the same species, respectively, both being naturally divine, the Gods of Destruction vary widely in species, and were actually mortal-turned-divine individuals from naturally mortal species.

So it caught her attention that the young man with the cute whisker marks was the reincarnation of someone that could turn into one.

After all, "Asura", was still often used as an adjective meaning "powerful" or "mighty", and for justifiable reason, as the asuras were originally just, good, virtuous, their nature had gradually changed. The asuras (which were sometimes referred to as "anti-gods") were depicted to have become proud, vain, to have stopped performing sacrifices, to violate sacred laws, not visit holy places, not cleanse themselves from sin, to be envious of devas, torturous of living beings, creating confusion in everything and to challenge the devas and it was significant that it was not for their sins that the Asura anti-gods had to be destroyed, but because of their power, their virtue, their knowledge, which threatened that of the gods.

The rivalry of Indra and Asura and their respective descendants in this universe feuding seemed almost derived from Hindu and Buddhist religions where the Gods, led by Indra, were in constant battle against the Asuras. In the teachings, Asuras were malevolent and Indra was benevolent. In this case, however, the brothers' roles were reversed; Asura was good and Indra was bad.

When Cus saw that Indra had vowed to destroy this world no matter how many lifetimes it took and how Asura swore to prevent that, the angel's eyes widened in shock. So that what Hamura had meant! Oh, she could see that while he and his following incarnations leading up to Naruto had done things that made it so they could never be called saints, it was mainly due to situation and circumstances that those negitive events occured, and at his core—their core—Asura and his successive incarnations held true to wanting to make this world one where no one had to suffer.

She liked that.

Looking at the boy with her smile still in place, she nodded. Well...no wonder Hamura was so assured she wouldn't have anything to worry about with Naruto around.

Like them, he could become the strongest warrior of his entire generation; from his home village and beyond. Not to mention, his power could grow to Destroyer God levels while his heart would keep him from falling into the standard of Destroyer Gods. Instead of taking life on a whim, he would fight for life and risk his own being to save the lives of others. That alone, even if he didn't reach their level, made him a more favorable candidate.

A smile grew on her face as she imagined the possibilities that laid in store for her and Naruto. "Thank you, Hamura," she whispered aloud, grateful to the deceased man for bringing her to this universe and helping her find such a gem in the blond man before her.

Now all she had to do was wait for him to wake up.

For the benefit of those that have never been rendered unconscious, it is a very strange sensation to say the least. Before you even open your eyes the first thing that comes back to you is the ability to hear. Where before it would be some kind of droning white noise, the noise begins to clear and become more and more coherent and less echoey until it is fully restored.

From that point your sense of feeling comes back and you try to move. It is only at that point when you try and fail due to the recent rebooting of your motor skills that you become aware that your eyes are fully open and that the reason you could not see was because you were readjusting to the light.

This was the fate that met Naruto upon his reawakening. His whole body hurt. Didn't help that he felt so tender at the moment...he tried sitting up and almost blacked out.

"Here. These should work." A voice said before he practically yelped as a hand was placed on his back and a second later, a warm sensation akin to the feel of medical chakra spread through him, as it did so, Naruto's dizziness passed.

The first thing he was immediately aware of was something on his face.

What the...what was he wearing? Reaching up, he removed whatever it was and looked down at himself and at what he'd removed.

"Whoa..." he said. What was with this outfit?! Then he broke out coughing, his throat raw.

His head was carefully lifted up and a sudden glass of water was put to his lips. He drank thankfully. When the glass was empty, it was pulled away.

"Easy...you just had your skin grow back, your nerves are pretty tender at the moment." a female voice said, making him turn to see a short girl with pale blue skin, violet eyes, and white hair which she wore as a single braided side pigtail and her hair combed in a 80/20 ratio. She had a light blue ring hung around her neck like a hoop or a halo. Her attire consisted of purple robes, a black cuirass, and a pink sash, along with black high-heeled shoes with white spats.

Laying next to her was a pink staff that had a gold-tipped top and bottom and a floating black sphere floating above the top with a light blue ring floating vertically around it.

Naruto blinked, "Who are you?" he asked. The girl looked strange, but then again, maybe it was just a certain clan she was from? If that was the case, no need not to be cordial. He'd seen odd things enough to be ok with that. For heck's sake, he had a demon living I his guts, so why should he find her appearance strange? Besides, the girl was cute.

The girl smiled, "I'm Cus. Nice to meet you."

"Naruto...Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato." he replied.

The girl, Cus, nodded.

Seeing he was laying on the grass, Naruto growled, recalling Jiraiya's actions. Damn pervert! When Naruto got his hands on him...! He tried getting up, but the blue girl held him down with a single finger.

"I wouldn't do that, your body's still recovering from that transformation. Stay and rest." Cus said.

Naruto stiffened and went wide-eyed, whipping around, nearly throwing up because of it, Naruto stared as her.

"...You saw...?!"

Cus nodded, catching him as he fell backwards and easing him onto the ground. With his head in her lap, she ran her fingers through his hair to help try and sooth him into a more comfortable state.

"You don't need to hurt anymore…I'll help you get stronger in a better way." she said, then the blond's current hostess lightly tapped on the tape and it felt like a protective shell, "That is, unless you enjoy having to put three pounds of tape around your body just to protect yourself after getting your skin peeled off."

Naruto felt just how thick the medical wrappings he had on were. Yeah, loosing his skin like this was not something he wanted to go through again. Besides, he couldn't control himself with that power overload, and he didn't want to hurt or kill anyone while rampaging around as a mindless beast like that.

Still...he looked at Cus skeptically...she didn't seem like a fighter to him. Then again, he recalled Kakashi-sensei once telling him that in the ninja world, it was possible for kids younger that at least twelve to be stronger than a jonin during the mission to Wave. Maybe it was like that this time?

"No offense...but you don't...well...you want to help me?" he asked.

"I can, if you want." the girl replied.

Groaning, Naruto mentally considered his options. On one hand, he was stuck with the most worthless one out of the three of the Sannin, the one who got by on reputation alone, since the lecher had the nerve to only show him the basics and then he was off gallivanting with some prostitute or peeping on some poor hot spring in whatever village they happened to be staying in...ah well, not like he expected any different from a lecherous old man who stays at home watching porno twenty-four-seven with the disposition of a child with an overly-eccentric and boisterous personality to compensate for still being a virgin, anyway. Thus Naruto was forced to train himself and/or depend utterly on the Kyuubi.

Or there was this girl he had just now met and knew nothing about.

This was a no-brainer. "Fine. Show me what you can do later when I'm feeling better, then." Naruto said.

The martial arts teacher and attendant to the deities of the former Universe 10 and the strongest being from there smiled. Extending a hand, the girl helped him up and they shook on it.

"Ready to start whenever you are, my little seito!" Cus chirped.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto stared at the girl whom had just called him her student. Start training when HE was ready? Sheesh! If his body didn't feel so thrashed, he'd start right this second!

"Well now...looks like you managed to control up to four tails worth of the fox's power enough to supress it completely. Good job Naruto, guess my teachings payed off for you!"

The second he'd heard that voice, Naruto's head had snapped around. Sure enough, that old pervert bastard was walking towards him. He growled.

Seeing where he was looking as well as hearing the voice, Cus whipped around. Then her eyes widened and she quickly moved to stand between Naruto and the old fool, arms spread wide.

The man stopped and looked her up and down critically, before shrugging to himself. "Meh...cute, but too young and underdeveloped...exotic with that skin tone, though." he said.

The angel instantly covered herself on reflex and turned bright red. Naruto glared murderously at the older man for that remark towards the one who helped him.

"Still...allow me to introduce myself." The man started a strange dance as he began his introduction. "I am the Hermit of Mount Myōboku; the wise and powerful Sage of Toads; the man who makes women flock for pleasure; the Gallant Jiraiya!"

"GO TO HELL, ERO-SENNIN!" Naruto roared, furious with the man. "Do you know how bad this could have turned out?! Where'd you run off to, another brothel or strip joint?!"

The sage rolled his eyes, "You're overreacting. Everything worked out, didn't it? As for where I was...it's like testing an explosive, I was going to watch the results of the test from a safe distance, is all." he explained nonchalantly.

At that, Cus glared, absolutly outraged. His actions, response and reasoning making it clear that she was going to learn to utterly and completely _loathe_ the man far too easily as power erupted off of her, her eyes started glowing lilac, the light enveloping all of her iris, pupil, and sclera as her body was engulfed in a shroud of energy aura of the same color consisting of rippling, fire-like energy, complete with sparkling particles travelling upwards that made her form within seem shadowed.

Jiraiya was forced to the ground by an unbelievable force as the sheer pressure seemed to want to rip the life right out of him. It felt like he'd made a sudden high-speed dive to the ocean floor without any equipment, and the pressure underwater was crushing his organs!

 _'W-what is th-this power!?'_ The sage thought, having never encountered such a force before.

"Testing the results of an explosive?!" she screamed, "How dare you?! He's a person, not a weapon! And for the record, while he was like that, he could still move! What if he'd found his way to a civilized area, or one of his attacks did, and he'd ended up hurting or killing people because you're stpidity, Ero-baka-teme?!"

She took a deep breath and retracted her energy. "Get out of my sight. And if you go anywhere near my seito again..."

"Your student?!" Jiraiya repeated incredulously, "Now see here...!"

"Oh! I did see! I saw you using a dangerous method on him in spite of his protests, I saw what it turned him into _AND_ I saw how you turned tail and ran!" Cus snarled, cutting the old man off.

Jiraiya winced.

"Get lost!" She snapped, the girl flinging a hand outward, fingers splayed. A second later, a small barrage of ki blasts were formed and discharged from the limb, aiming at his feet. Jiraiya yelped and bolted.

Breathing heavily, Cus tried to calm down. But looking around did not help her mood."Great, I was so upset that my energy spiked and got the better of me..." the blue-skinned girl muttered.

Cus knew she wasn't the strongest angel, her power was only at Tweleve Quintillion, but it was more than enough to have made a mess of things. The sheer energy output she had been emitting had caused an earthquake in the area they were in for up to two thousand, seven hundred and seven kilometers away from where she was standing; heavy chunks of earth being made to jut up wildly in height, fraying together and warping the surroundings.

At that, Naruto gawked at her. All this...from a simple power adjustment?! Ok...he was convinced! Cus was strong! And she wanted to train him?! He grinned, suddenly estatic.

"So...since that baka is gone..." he voiced, getting the attention of the girl.

"Hm? Oh! Sorry! Just...he made me so mad I lost track of things, sorry." Cus said, looking over at Naruto, then levitating a few feet off the ground to avoid the mess her energy had made and hovered over to Naruto, landing in front of him.

"You can fly?!" The blond yelped.

Cus smiled, amused. "Uh-huh. It'll be one of the things I'll be teaching you to do. The end goal of my training being that I would like to train you so that you can use this," Cus said as she held out a hand and formed a dark violet-glowing energy orb with a pitch-black outline to it.

Hakai no enerugī...Energy of Destruction...the divine energy used by Gods of Destruction. Technically, angels weren't allowed to produce this kind of ki. But looking at it, Cus felt nostalgic, it reminded her of Rumsshi-sama...that pink elephant had been relatively lazy god, so much so that he didn't like to destroy planets because he found it too much of a pain...geeze, she missed him! Covering her mouch with her free hand, Cus let out a fake yawn to close her eyes and stop the tears she could feel starting to build up in them.

"This possess the power to destroy almost anything with little effort, even non-corporeal beings like ghosts are still vulnerable to this technique." She explained when he lowered her hand and felt her tears be held back.

Naruto stared. That orb she made...he could tell it was formed out of some seriously nasty stuff,. "You want me to learn this? Why?" He asked. The energy made him leery.

Cus gave him a pointed look, "Would you rather use that energy the Ero-baka-teme wanted you to? At least this stuff can be controlled."

"Point taken...er...Cus-sensei." he admitted. He had never wanted the fox or it's power in him anyway. The power was way more trouble than it was worth. "Still...that's some mean chakra. Can tell just by looking."

Chakra? What was...? Oh. Cus almost shook her head at her own naiveté. Different place, different rules. So...the natives of this reality refered to Ki as "chakra", huh? She'd need to remember that.

"I'm aware of that. So with that in mind, care showing me what your energy is like when it isn't influinced to go beserk?" Cus asked.

Naruto nodded and formed a Rasengan as a demonstration.

Examining the two orbs side by side with a critical eye, the angel compaired what she could sense.

Based on what Cus could see from studying the energy waveleangths, the ki of the multiverse she'd left behind was more powerful, but lesss flexible than what this "chakra" stuff could do. Yet there was something slightly different about chakra, like there was something added to it.

"Interesting..." she muttered. She would need to figure out that additional element before she could get to the good stuff in teaching him, but this was at least a step in the right direction.

Dispelling the destruction orb,the angel was surprised when Naruto stood. He was shakey as he did, but he gave her a determined grin all the same.

"Bring it, Cus-sensei. Won't let you down!"

His responce made her laugh. It felt good having something to laugh about again, and Naruto's spirit was motovational and refreshing. It was a good sign as far as she saw things. Still...he was going to hate her and consider her a sadist by the time this was barely half over. But that was normal with training upcoming Gods of Destruction. The training wasn't meant to be easy at all.

"Let's get started." The female angel declared.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Note: Just a quick thank-you to my friend, Agurra of the Darkness, for helping me with the fight scenes in this chapter!**

* * *

Cus thought for a moment, what could she teach him that would be useful, relatively simple, and be a good way to catch his interest?

Oh!

The angel grinned and grabbed Naruto by the wrist and zoomed up to a full kilometer into the air, Naruto yelping as he dangled from the petite girl's grasp as she laughed playfully, not at all bothered by his weight (she'd lifted WAY heavier things than a fifteen-year-old boy before), then smiled as he looked up at her and she, down as his so their eyes met.

"Up for learning to fly?" she asked. "Since you can already draw on your energy, should be easier to figure out how to do it."

Naruto nodded. He'd be lying if the concept of flying freely under his own power didn't appeal to him.

Nodding, Cus descended and placed him on the ground.

"Why are you helping me, anyways? Not that I'm not grateful, but..." the masked boy said, only to trail off.

"Seems unusual that someone that you'd only just met would take such an interest in cultivating your potential?" Cus supplied.

Naruto nodded. While he was used to helping out others he had just met on the same day, he wasn't used to the reverse being true.

"I...I just...you see, where I was from..." Cus sighed, how to explain that Angels literally needed a God of Destruction to be able to function normally, or that her universe and everyone in it had been whipped out over a stupid fighting tournament?

"...Hard to talk about?" Naruto asked, to which the girl nodded. "Then tell me about it when your heart feels up for it, then. Don't wanna poke at wounds."

"...I...thank you Naruto, that means a lot." Cus said, faintly smiling. With that settled, Cus began to think. How was she going to do this? She'd need to improvise some of training since she couldn't give Naruto the exact training methods she did on the world where she had trained...Cus fought down a wince; there it was again...another reminder of her destroyed universe 10. Her thoughts had gone to her time training Rumsshi-sama to be a god!

As she squeezed her eyes shut and her body started shaking while her breathing picked up as she hugged her arms, there was a plopping sound and then Cus' eyes bolted open and she jumped with a yelp as something slick penetrated her ear. Naruto pulled his finger out, causing Cus to furiously start wiping at it, glaring at Naruto.

"Did that take your mind off of what was bothering you?" Naruto asked.

Cus let her expression morph into something that was a hybrid of a glare and a pout at that. She'd be lying if getting a Wet Willy was pleasant, but an even worse lie to say she didn't understand why it was given to her. Seemed her new student would pull anything to keep her thoughts off of (though he didn't know it) what had happened to Universe 10.

She felt thankful for that, even if it put her at the butt of things he did. The distractions helped. "Thanks..." Cus told him, still rubbing at her ear. "So shall we start?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

Sitting down in front of the young blond, Cus thought on how to do this, "Ok...now, before I actually teach you to fly, I noticed that when learning to fly, most don't think about teaching what I like calling the "bubble blanket trick". When you're flying, the wind gets in your eyes, slows you down, or if you keep going, you'd have to close your eyes, and that could cause you to crash."

Naruto frowned. "So you either go so slow that there's no point to being able to fly rather than walk, or you can't see and end up crashing?"

Cus nodded. "Right. Not to mention that the higher you go, the thinner and colder air gets. You could freeze and suffocate."

Naruto stared, confused. Thinner air? Colder? Say what? What was she talking about?

Seeing his confusion, Cus grimaced as she realized she'd have to show him what she meant. She was not going to like this. "Sorry about this." the light blue skinned girl said, taking Naruto's wrist and zooming straight up, going higher and higher. As she continued to ascend, it turned frigid and his limbs started to become covered in ice as the temperature dropped. And as they went higher still, Naruto gasped and panted as his breathing became labored. There didn't seem to be enough air! Red dots swam before his eyes and blackness licked at everything from the edges of his vision and everything was starting to turn grey as he became more and more lightheaded.

Feebly, Naruto tugged at the light blue girl's sleeve. There wasn't much, if any, force behind it, yet it seemed Cus really did know what she was doing and had been paying close attention to him. When she felt the light tug, she ceased raising and gave a nod before lowering, going slowly so the decent wouldn't have any negative side-effects on Naruto's body. Along with that, Cus also extended her aura to envelop Naruto to help thaw him from the effects of unprotected exposure to the freezing temperatures of the upper atmosphere.

By the time Cus had landed, Naruto had recovered, yet clutched his chest as a coughing fit wracked his body. Cus winced guiltily.

"Take it easy," she said. Without breaking eye contact, the angel took the jinchuriki's head in her hands and held it. "You have to control your breathing," she coaxed. "Take slow, steady breaths …" She took shallow breaths herself, to show Naruto by example, and soon his own breath became less forced, less labored.

"Slow, steady… that's it," Cus said as the tension drained from Naruto's face and he visibly relaxed. Finally, she let go of him.

"I'm okay… I'm okay," Naruto coughed, "Ugh...man...that sucked..."

"See why the "Bubble Blanket" is so important? At heights of 62,000 and 63,500 feet or if you'd rather think on it this way, 18,900 and 19,350 meters, blood begins to boil at body temperature. This altitude is generally considered to be the absolute limit compatible with life. At this point, humans cannot survive without pressurization measures."

"And the bubble trick...you're going to teach me...has me use my chakra...to help prevent all that...if I went...too high?" Naruto asked, still taking deep breaths to help recover.

Cus rubbed his back soothingly, "Yeah, it is. Goal of what I want to teach you is to focus your energy, have it coat your entire body and use it as a way to hold in both warmth and oxygen, while also keeping harmful outside elements out. Think of it like wearing a bubble, hence the name. A bubble in the outline shape of a person, and keeps warmth in like a blanket when you're up high. That's why I call it the "bubble blanket trick"."

Naruto nodded, he got what Cus was saying.

"Ok, so when you feel up to it, we'll start training with it. First with being still in a meditative state, then we'll go from there. That way, you can practice both energy control and improve your focus against outside distraction at the same time."

Naruto winced. Sheesh...was he in for a long day, then. Meditating? Not his strong suit. Naruto knew how bad he was at that. Just sitting still was almost impossible for him...and his time in the academy back home had been proof of that.

"Ok, sensei...but just to let you know...this'll be frustrating for the both of us. I'm actually pretty bad at the whole "stillness" thing needed for it, always have been.." Naruto warned.

Cus blinked, then nodded. So he knew enough about himself to be aware of that, huh? While that wasn't news she considered good seeing as it would make learning ki use more difficult, at least Naruto was aware of how he was and was willing to admit it so they could be prepared for a rougher time with things.

Points for honesty at least, and she knew this wouldn't be easy. Then again, a difficult student would be good for keeping her busy. And it wasn't like Naruto was unwilling or unable to learn, just that it was difficult for her current student to be stationary, seeing as he was filled to the absolute brim with energy. No doubt because the energy levels in his body were so high. Consequently, he'd have a hard time concentrating most of the time. If you wanted him to learn, you needed to make it something he needed to learn through trial and error, and through hands-on training. Going into a long explanation would more than likely just confuse and bore him him, so she would need to sum the explanation up and then show him what she wanted him to learn and why by example.

Just talking about what you wanted him to learn and then telling him to do it was more counterproductive than anything else.

Not to mention that while he was used to drawing on the energy in his body, he'd be trying to figure out how to draw on purely spiritual energies to produce ki; but odds were that he'd subconsciously keep mixing his energy together with that other element Cus had noticed before, so rather than ki, he'd produce chakra like he was used to.

It would make things frustrating for both of them, as it would only lengthen what was supposed to be the 'easy' first step.

Then again, Cus would need to figured out what that additional element to Naruto's energy was, anyway. She knew ki was the energy force produced by one's spirit, and that its force was inside every living being, with its major focus being in the center of the body. By drawing it out, an individual was able to manipulate it and use it outside the body. And godly energy required perfect innate ki control and a calm mind.

The very least that Cus was grateful for, how obvious it was for her to tell just by looking that Naruto's energy was matched in spades by his headstrong determination. If she had him pegged right, he'd refused to take any breaks until he made some sort of advancement. Not only that, but he was a kinesthetic learner. And the harder the task he was given, the more he wanted to excel and prove himself by accomplishing it.

It was an appropriate mindset for what Cus wanted to help him become.

One Cus herself felt jealous of.

Due to their power and role, the Angels usually refrained from directly involving themselves in a conflict or acting as combatants in any capacity beyond training unless strictly necessary, usually only acting to stabilize and calm down Gods of Destruction, and of course Angels would also intervene if the life of a Supreme Kai or God of Destruction, specially the ones under their specific care, were to be threatened while under their watch. However, Angels were remorseless and indifferent, not caring at all about the lives of others. That included not only mortals, but also the gods themselves, and tended not to involve themselves emotionally with anything or anyone, except perhaps, with each other.

Cus, in explicit contrast to her family however, had respected, cared about, and was emotionally attached to her gods, mortals, and Universe and had always enjoyed the company of her fellow deities, as well as mortals, however. She didn't like the emotionlessness of her kind. Power was dangerous in the hands of the apathetic since it didn't matter to them who was hurt or killed, after all. And who were stronger than the Angels, except for...Cus scowled at the thought of Zen-Oh. Him and every possible version of him were nothing but mass murderers as far as she was concerned. Shaking her head to clear it of thoughts that would bring up the losses she had no desire to think of, she turned her attention to her student.

"Ok, Naruto...Going to warn you now about my training methods: you'll come to hate it. Come to see it as sadistic and insane with how intense it is."

Naruto snorted, "Compared to what the Ero-sennin tried to pull? Besides, training is supposed to push someone to their limits to make them stronger, right?"

Well, she had to give him that.

"Ok then, Naruto. Just so you know, every time you use that red energy, I'll consider the lesson a failure. Want to help you get strong enough to where you don't need the red stuff." the blue-skinned angel said.

At that, Naruto let out a small bark of laughter. "You serious?! Oh man...where have you _been_ , then?! I never even wanted that power! Hell, didn't even know it was there in my body until I was thirteen! HA! Strong enough to where I don't need it?! **THAT'S** been my aim since even before this whole training trip!"

Cus stared at that, mentally storing that away for later. So he had an unwanted power that he'd been unaware of? She frowned. Something about that didn't sit right with her. Another mystery to add to who her new student in godhood was. Sure she could use her staff and backtrack like she did with finding out about his ties to Hamura's second-born nephew, but she would much rather get to know him better the right way. Slowly and gradually. Thus, she had stopped after Harashama's demise as far as tracing Asura and his reincarnation cycle went.

"Well then, if you have too much energy to sit still for the first part of your training...how about we burn some off in a spar? Once you're tired, should make staying still easy since your body wants to just be still and recover." Cus said as she went into a fighter's stance with a smile on her face, Naruto didn't need to be told that he was being challenged and got into his own fighting stance.

"Ok...how about for rules, no weapons and no moves that require the use of the energy in our bodies. Straight up physical match that way." Cus said, getting a nod from her new student."Ok then. Oh! And I'll only use my left hand against you." she said, twiddling the fingers of said hand at him in a wave.

"...Are you underestimating me?" Naruto said, eyes narrowing under his mask.

"No. Just that since this is just a spar, there's no need to go full-force. And if I could handle myself against what that dirty old toad's being stupid turned you into without getting a scratch on me, then that should tell you a lot about how strong I am." Cus pointed out. "Not that I underestimate you, but I both need to see what your level as a fighter is at and get you tired enough to stay still for the lessons before anything else, you did say you were bad at stillness, after all."

"Oh...ok then, Cus-sensei. Sorry...just hate being underestimated." Naruto said.

Cus smiled. Of course she knew there was no way Naruto, in his current state anyway, could pose a challenge to herself. She was the instructor for a God of Destruction after all. And yet despite being keenly aware of this...as she adjusted her posture to enter her stance, extending her flat hand so that the edge of her hand was pointed in Naruto's direction, her elbow bent almost like a V, while the rest of her body remain in a standard position, she could help but feel a sense of excitement at the prospect of training him.

"Alright Naruto, let's see how well you can handle me."

Naruto, ever the eager one, only nodded before launching himself at Cus at a fairly high speed, kicking up a dust trail as he quickened his pace. The gap between the two was closed almost immediately, his right arm reeling back slightly as he seemed ready to deliver a potent right hook to her face.

However, before he got within her arm's reach, he pushed his back leg up, turning his front foot carrying his back leg around to deliver a strong kick to Cus's shins. The maneuver merited a chuckle from the Angel.

 _'Clever enough tactic, trying to fake me out with a punch, only to go for a kick to an area that would be harder to defend against with just my arm. Not a bad strategy.'_ she mentally praised.

Of course, being impressed didn't mean she couldn't counter. Before the blond ninja's leg had managed to properly extend, her hand shot forward, her open palm quickly smacking his tibia with enough force to cause his supporting foot to loose balance and leave the ground.

However, to the slight surprise of the small Angel, Naruto reacted almost immediately, quickly pulling his front leg in before rotating his body in her direction. With a quick adjustment, he planted his left hand firmly onto the ground, giving him a solid foundation for a brief moment before his body turned further, quickly adding an additional push from the ground to where his leg was now coming towards Cus, though at a much higher level of speed, lifting up to unleash a powerful ax kick.

Once again, Cus was impressed by the ninja's ability to adapt and adjust to his situation, able to take a failed kick and turn it into an even more potent one. It quickly made her realize just how predictable and basic the fighting techniques of many of the Gods and Mortals she'd seen as of late were. Though it wasn't surprising with their immense power and ability to do things like rip mountains apart all by raising their internal energy levels that such flourished moves were lost on them, not to mention most focused on energy techniques mixed in with just the most basic forms of punches and kicks. The neglect of fundamentals was actually depressing when she thought about it. This small clash with Naruto was letting her see just how much the multiverse she'd left seemed to have favored brute force and brawling tactics over refined skill. It begged the question of when the last contest of purely refined physical technique and tactics without resorting to energy attacks had actually been in the universes she and her siblings resided over had been.

Either way, she admired it for a moment before her left hand snapped forward with snake-like precision, easily wrapping around Naruto's ankle before yanking him forward, effectively halting his rotation before launching him into the air with a solid, one arm over the head throw.

His body made contact with the ground, though he was able to turn himself slightly so he only slid across the ground for a second rather than outright crashing into it. With a quick leap, he was back on his feet and ready for more.

Cus continued to smile, intrigued by what tactics he would try to implement next. However, the blond shinobi, having already failed more than once at charging forward, took a quick moment to get a grasp on his next move. Scanning over the Angel, looking for some kind of weakness he could exploit.

Cus, of course, was quick to pick up on this and it was certainly an admirable thing to attempt. ' _He's certainly a quick learner at least, what he'll try next?'_

After a moment, Naruto's face broke into a grin under his mask as he darted toward the Angel at high speed, keeping his body low to the ground. Cus remained in her stance, ready to respond to whatever tactic he tried.

At least, that's what she thought, only for Naruto to crouch his body low, before bursting forth a high speed right towards her, swinging his back leg into a high-speed side kick. The added push from the ground allowed him to add more momentum to the kick so it was faster than the previous attacks.

However, Cus's hand was as lightning fast as ever, quickly grabbing the offending limb and stopping it mid flight. Her expression continuing to smile at his tactic. "Pretty good Naruto, not quiet quick eno..."

Her comment immediately died in her throat as she felt a strong grip now clenching her own wrist, finding Naruto's right hand latched firmly around her arm. She actually needed a moment to recover from the shock before noticing Naruto's left fist coming directly for her face.

The offending limb quickly crossed over her own arm on a direct course for her exposed head, but Cus quickly moved her arm, and Naruto's body, up knocking the limb off course and it seemed like she'd succeeded. Only for her to notice a milisecond too late that Naruto was giving off the impression he was grinning widely under his mask.

Before his hand was out of reach, his fist slide sideways and opened up, sending a massive cloud of dust and sand directly into the Angel's open and unguarded eyes. The tiny fragments of rock and mineral colliding with her retina, like numerous pins and needles, forcing tears to cascade from her eyes as she clenched them shut to block out some of the pain.

However, she was still able to keep her wits enough to promptly perform an overhead throw of Naruto with her single hand. Tossing the blond several yards away, though once again he was able to right himself mid flight and land on his feet, going so far as to raise the bottom portion of his mask up just enough to expose his grin firmly plastered on his face for a moment before lowering to again hide the entirety of his facial features as Cus struggled to regain the use of her eyes.

The purple wearing girl heard Naruto lightly chuckle at his first act of success over the Angel, while Cus tried to clear some of the sand away with her hand. Naruto quickly moved forward on the attack, eager to build on the momentum he'd acquired and press his advantage of her temporary blindness for all it was worth for as long as it lasted. Thus, he was quick to unload a straight jab to Cus's exposed abdomen, but not unlike before, her fast hand was able to stop it, only this time pushing the punch downward before smacking him square in the forehead with an open palm strike, sending his body rolling backwards, before he stopped on his back. Cus the one laughing now.

Of course Naruto quickly lept to his feet, while Cus remained completely blinded. "I'll give you credit Naruto, getting the drop on me isn't easy. However, you should know that just because you blinded me isn't much. Only amateur fighters rely on things like their sight. I'm more than capable of fighting you off even with my eyes covered."

Naruto however, didn't even look remotely deterred by this, eager to keep going, "I kind of figured that, doesn't mean I can't try to level the playing field a little." His smile under his mask grew wider as he readied for his next move, "Besides, just cause you can still fight doesn't mean you aren't at a disadvantage."

Cus couldn't mull over these words long, as she could easily hear him charging forward, his feet crunching the grass and rock beneath them. "A straight forward attack? He can't honestly believe that'll work now does he."

Perplexed by his actions, she still readied herself, able to tell right where he was and how close he was getting. She prepared to counter, when another, louder sound distracted her.

"What?!"

As she still couldn't see yet, when the louder sound faded, she could no longer hear Naruto's footsteps, but she did hear the rustle of cloth getting closer to her. Almost on reflex she struck forward, expecting to hit flesh and muscle, but instead it was soft fabric, now latch around her hand. It took her only a moment to realize her folly. ' _He used his cloak to distract me, using another sound to take advantage of my lack of sight. Another clever tactic, seems he's not as much a knucklehead as everyone claims him to be...'_

However, Cus was still not in any danger, as she still had three senses to rely on, most notably, touch. With a simply increase in concentration, she was able to pinpoint Naruto's follow up, a high kick to the left, the opposite side of the cloak. She responded quickly moving her arm, with the cloak attached directly into Naruto's path.

The movement was instant, resulting in his kick getting caught in the cloak and his body losing it's momentum falling to the ground right in front of Cus. Naturally he struggled under the cloak, like a fish caught in a net and by the time he got it off, Cus was standing right in front of him, her hand raised in knife position inches from his nose.

"Very impressive Naruto, if I were a less skilled opponent that would've worked. However, you should always remember opponents have multiple senses to rely on. Sight, sound, touch, smell, even taste can be used in battle to great effect and trained warriors know how to fall back on those senses when the others fail. You have have eliminated my sight and countered my sense of sound, but I simply adjusted with my sense of touch and felt your presence in the air."

Her smile simply grew as she spoke to him, beaming with greater pride. "However, forcing me to do so, even under these conditions is quite an accomplishment, you should be proud."

With a quick swipe of her hand followed by a few blinks, the sand was promptly removed and her eyes once again able to see the world clearly. "Of course, just because I can doesn't mean I'm just going to leave sand and dirt in my eyes. Hardly a comfortable thing to do, don't you think?"

Naruto clenched a trembling fist and punched the ground in frustration. Cus was easily smarter, faster, stronger and more experienced than he was in every way, the only thing he might have against her was stamina and even then, that could be debatable.

"Thought I had you that time!" He growled, frustration evident.

"Almost did!" Cus admitted with an encouraging smile and nod to her new pupil.

From what Cus could see about Naruto as far as his fighting style went, whatever it really was, it was overwhelmingly offensive, defense other than dodging and blocking be damned.

While Naruto had _some_ formal training in basics, he seemed to use an unusual, improvised, type of free-style, acrobatic brawler technique that allowed him to make full use of his strength, agility, and neigh-superhuman stamina; all with the formal lessons mixed into it to give it some form of a base.

There wasn't much finesse to it. He'd attempt to hit you, if it failed he'd try it in another way from another angle, and again, and again until he finally teed off on you. It was so spastic, with no rhyme or reason for some of the things he did, but it all flowed. It was as if he had painstakingly broken down exactly what random moves would work for him and stitched them together to comprise his fighting style. In short, winging it until he found something that worked was pretty much the calling card of Naruto's entire fighting style, so he had no problems with that.

Naruto had no problems standing and trading back and forth in combat even when he'd take the worst of a fight (that was something Cus would admit that didn't like). He wasn't afraid to try for something off the wall, like a kick that would not only allow him to get underneath a blow, but would also let him sit back on his hands and plant both of his feet with a kick that would throw his enemies off balance. And it worked because Naruto was so used to his own body mechanics and was so aware of how he tended to move that it didn't matter. Any mistake he made in his movements he could reflexively make up for if you tried to take the slight imperfection of his actions as an opening to attack. It wasn't being intentionally clumsy, because clumsy was far too harsh of a word to describe it. There was nothing inept or lumbering about anything that Naruto did. It just seemed that he moved with a pinch of calculated recklessness, constantly trying to stay loose and adaptable. He really believed that he could turn the tables on any foe in a heartbeat and was willing to put his body out there to do such. It caused him to be a tactical nightmare when you were fighting him. Naruto had proven to be notoriously durable. To so much as simply knock him out, you had to take that head of his out. No cumulative damage would do the job. There was no getting around that.

In short. Naruto was more or less a street fighter.

Not only all of that, but Cus was starting to see that when it came to pure battle instincts or improvising on the battlefield, Naruto was nothing short of something of a battle genius capable of defeating enemies far above his caliber by utilizing an uncanny wit and the ability to come up with on the move tactics and employ them near instantaneously. A unique talent that would and should make any halfway decent tactician extremely weary of facing him on the field of battle. Even the most battle hardened tacticians needed to take time to think on their stratagems before employing them in the field, yet Naruto has the ability to come up with similar and even superior tactics on the fly.

If he couldn't beat you head-to-head, he'd misdirect you to give himself openings, and if worse came to worse, he'd trust in his durability and stamina, turtle himself so you'd wear yourself out beating on him until he outlasted you and retaliate once you couldn't defend yourself from his assault any further.

Not to mention that Cus had never seen anyone with a body that remembered so quickly other than Sayians.

Not bad at all...but "not bad" wasn't the same as "good".

Nodding to herself, Cus removed his mask with a smile, "And now...time to end it!" she giggled. Having seen all she felt she needed without Naruto resorting to using any techniques that required him to use the energy in his body to do them, Cus poked him on the tip of his nose, "Boop!"

At the seemingly innocent tap on the tip of his nose, Naruto was sent flying and a loud boom was heard, blotting out the sound of his scream of pain as he was sent flying backwards, Everything he could see was in distorted black and white. Almost literal blinding pain.

Cus was left standing at the start of a trench dug ten feet deep into the ground by Naruto's body, the soil ignited into a flame trail from sheer friction in the air. "Uh...heheheh...guess I overdid it..." the angel said nervously. Oh just perfect...SHE'D KILLED HER STUDENT!

Rushing to follow it, when she reached it's end, she was shocked seeing Naruto leaning against one of the charred, felled trees.

"...N-n-not...yet...I can...still...fight..." Naruto groaned, trying to push himself up before his shaking knees gave out and he fell flat on his face, "Ok...forget flying for now...teach me that poke you just used, Cus-sensei..." Naruto said before blacking out.

Blinking in sheer shock that she hadn't broken him in half, then letting out a relieved sigh that she hadn't killed her latest pupil, the angel went over and squatted down next to him,. "Couldn't even beat one hand. We've got work to do."

Still...all things considered, Naruto hadn't done too bad, and he was still trying to fight, credit for guts if nothing else. As she draped his cloak over him like a blanket and setting down his mask as she sat next to his body, she studied him.

"A Honey Badger." Cus decided with a nod, that's what Naruto reminded her of. Honey badgers, also known as Ratel, were gutsy things...so much so that they were in the record books for "fearlessness". Ratels would stand their ground and even attack predators larger than they are. They didn't care HOW big and/or bad the ones they were dealing with were, they'd clash with them anyway!

Yes, Uzumaki Naruto reminded her of a Ratel. Certainly had the guts for it.

The Angel studied Naruto's face. Smiling, she reached out and gently cupped one lightly tanned cheek, her thumb running lightly over one of the odd whisker-like marks lying there. The boy let out a slight rumbling sound at the gentle touch that sounded suspiciously like a purr. His head turned into Cus's hand and he leaned to follow the touches, making her giggle.

Starting to enjoy herself, the angel brought up her other hand and gave his head a pat gently and then playfully ruffled his hair, noting it felt odd but in a good way. It felt like a strange mix between hair and fur, something which greatly puzzled and pleased her at the same time. Beginning to actively scratch his scalp with her fingers as his purring increased in volume, Cus laughed as she stared pulling her hands apart slowly, and he started tossing his head back and forth, as if Naruto's subconscious couldn't decide which petting sensation to follow before Naruto let out a pitiful whimper that left Cus gawking, then she shook her head and moved Naruto's head to where she was petting and scratching simultaneously again, quelling his whimpers and his purring resumed. As she amused herself like this, Cus felt herself began to relax, and a small, content smirk began to form on her face.

Well, this place wasn't Universe 10, but Cus had the feeling she was going to like it here; and all in all, she found Naruto to be a very interesting case as the candidate to be her next God of Destruction...

Now...to see about that red energy that had turned him into a beast. Pulling one hand away and placing it on his forehead, Cus sent a small burst of her ki into Naruto, forcing her way into the mindscape of the Uzumaki whom had his physical body animated by the soul of the spirit of his own ancestor.


	4. Chapter 4

Cus blinked as she found herself in the tunnels of a flooded, dimly-lit, boiler room-like sewer system.

 _This_ was what represented Naruto's mindscape?!

Cus looked around, marveling at what comprised the young man's mind. It was a bit amazing. And more than a bit concerning. Normally, most people would have a mental construct of their home, or of a place where they felt safe, but this was the exact opposite. It didn't exactly scream mental stability.

Cus looked down at the water that surrounded her ankles in a bit of annoyance even with knowing it wasn't real. Not wanting to tread water, the angel levitated herself out of it and shook her legs to dry them off.

Now...where was the source of that red berserker energy? She had told Naruto she was going to train him, but every time he used that red energy during his training, she'd consider the lesson a failure since she was out to help him get strong enough to where her new pupil wouldn't need the red stuff. But just in case, she was going to see if there was a way to hinder that red energy so Naruto wasn't tapping into it unintentionally so that it didn't sabotage his efforts...training to the point one could use divine energy was hard enough as it was, no need for an additional roadblock, after all.

As she floated above the liquid, Cus then heard something like a stone compactor going, making her frown. Wherever that sound was coming from, she sensed the red energy coming from the same direction, so she followed it. As she got closer, she recognized more of what she was hearing. It wasn't a compactor she'd heard earlier, it was the sound of breathing and growling...and from the noise, she figured it was big.

Frowning, Cus followed the sound and, just in case, cast her senses outward to locate the biggest mass of energy. After a long series of hallways, she finally arriving at the source of what she heard and sensed. Cus's jaw dropped at the sight of a huge cage door, spanning floor to ceiling and nearly wall to wall, and all of it held closed seemingly by a paper that connected the two central-most bars together. Seeing movement within the cage, the Angel of the former Universe 10 felt herself gap as she took in the form within the cage: a massive rust red fox with black around it's eyes that curled into it's long ears and almost hand shaped frontal paws.

It...it was…so…it was so…the angel couldn't believe… how… it was so…Cus held her cheeks with wide, glazed eyes, "It's too cute!"

The fox blinked, shocked, then snarled, **"I! AM! NOT! CUTE!"** the beast thundered, voice showing it to be male.

Cus, stars in her eyes, quickly went up to the bars and squeezed through them. Looking at the large creature with childish wonder, her eyes lit up. "Oh! You fluffy thing, you! As cute as you are, I bet with a bit of grooming, you'd be gorgeous!"

Before the biju knew what just happened, the angel used her staff and immediately a tornado of brushes, blotters, scissors, nail polish, lipstick and cotton balls descended on the tailed beast.

When the smoke cleared, the fox was now very close to resembling a french poodle as the beast's fur looked to be shaven completely off with some exceptions; like on his head was now an poofed-up afro of his own fur with a rainbow assortment of colored bows, the mane was now a poofy mane around the fox's neck and shoulders and all nine of the tail ends were all puff balls.

The fearsome fox now had a pale white face with little orbs at the end of long eyelashes and was wearing the most blinding choice of pink dress ever seen; on his front limbs were what seemed to be latex gloves that went up to his new collar that had eyes on top of his hand-like paws while on his feet were stiletto heel platform pumps.

To to finish the look off, all nine of his tails were matching the dress' material, each with an eye on them. Over all, he looked like a pink clown version of himself. When the Kyuubi looked into the surface of the water and caught sight of his reflection...

 **"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU LITTLE BITCH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!"** Whipping his head up to glare furiously at her, the fox snarled as he flared his power and blew the outfit off while also restoring his features to what they were before.

Cus's eyes widened at the display, noting the color in particular, "So you're the cause of that red energy?!"

 **"SO HELP ME, I'LL ERASE YOU FROM EXISTENCE FOR THAT!"**

At those words, Cus felt as if her organs suddenly froze over and memories of everything the Omni-king had taken from her, everything he'd erased from existence, flashing through her mind. Trembling, she looked down, shadowing her features and then an uncharacteristic, dark, icy, razor-thin smirk made it's way across her lips. Well...she had entered Naruto's mindscape to halt the chance of this fox's energy messing with what she meant to teach him anyways, after all...

"You know...while necessity makes it so I don't harm Naruto too badly, I don't have a reason to hold back fighting _you..._ " The young-looking angel said coolly. Cus pounced at the massive beast, knocking him off his feet and right against the wall behind him. Before the tailed beast could recover, Cus lifted him over her head with strength highly disproportionate to her body and began to slam his back and face against the walls of the caged-off area four times before throwing him away from her.

The fox, dazed for a moment, recovered and raised a hand-like paw to smash the girl again and attempted to pounce on her, but Cus was too fast and he fell onto the ground.

The giant fox and the young-looking angel then rushed at each other, but the smaller of the two grabbed the larger and lifted him over her head and then began to spin him around like how a professional basketball player would the ball on their finger. Then Cus hurled the fox, with him screaming as the Angel then jumped and slammed against him and then laid down on her back in mid-air as if she were lounging on her back and began to juggle him with her legs, causing the giant fox to spin like a ball.

Getting bored of this, the angel then launched the fox high into the air and slamming him against the ceiling of the cell, caught him, and viciously slammed the giant kitsune against the ground and lifted him up only to repeat the slamming for another seven times.

Cus shrugged as the Kyuubi slammed into the floor, "Try hitting me all you like, won't work. Smaller size gives one an advantage in dodging and striking beings like you. After all, as big as you are, have you ever tried to hit a regular house fly?" Well...there was that as a factor, and the tiny detail that as someone who trained deities, Cus was actually ABOVE god-teir level in strength, but she wasn't going to tell this fox that bit of information.

 **"DAMN YOU!"** the Kyuubi roared in outrage as he then attempted to slash Cus into ribbons with his claws but just like before, Cus simply evaded the claws as if the Kyuubi was in slow motion to her, getting even more agitated by seeing the angel make a monkey out of himself, the Kyuubi then attempted to use his tails against her like colossal whips only to quickly regret that choice as Cus then grabbed one of his tails and then suddenly she began to spin in a circle while picking up speed she spun faster and faster until before the Kyuubi knew it he felt his tail was suddenly let go and he could hear Cus taunt, "So long, Fluffy!" only for the Kyuubi to crash into a nearby wall of his cage.

Then Cus teleported on top of the Biju and looked down at the beast, "You know... if you just agreed to not endanger my student's life like you've been doing, this all could've been avoided..." then shot downwards and the fox roared in anger as Cus buried her feet into his back with enough force to dislocate his spine.

Seeing that brute force wasn't working, the Kyuubi then began to create a Tailed Beast Bomb as he began to make a dark sphere and just about as the beast was about to swallow the orb, Cus finally made her move as she tapped the end of her staff to the beast's gut. Though to her this was just a tap, but Kurama was knocked onto his back and in pain as the force from the "tap" felt like getting hit by a incoming planet. And the fox knew what that was like due to his father's Chibaku Tensei!

What was more, the beast felt enraged at the sight of Cus's grinning face and he didn't even care about "accidentally" killing his stupid host...as long as he can kill this pest then who gives a shit!

Cus then saw the biju open it's mouth and saw multiple orbs in front of it until they all fused into a gigantic black orb until she saw the fox chomp down upon it and then swallowed it, and then saw the beast fire an energy blast at her.

Recognizing the technique, Cus tsked as she raised her hand in defense before the attack hit her with an ungodly explosion.

The inside of the cage lit up like a sun had been born there and the fox sneered as the massive mushroom cloud started to dissipate. But to the biju's shock and horror, once the blast was gone, he saw Cus had caught his biju bomb in the air and she picked it up above her head and smiled coldly, "I believe this belongs to you..." and then she threw it back to the biju, causing a massive explosion upon impact.

When the explosion faded, the beast was down on his side, breathing in a labored fashion.

Looking down into the water, Cus saw that blood was emanating from the inside of the cage, from the Kyuubi itself. There was no overbearing, smothering presence that came with standing before it. That fox was hurt.

 **"...Just...What...ARE you...?"** There was no possible way that his enemy was human as no mortal creature could take a bijūdama directly and survive, let alone still have a body remaining afterwards.

"Ready to be reasonable? I'll heal you if you listen to what I have to say. Though I need to confess, so many things in this universe...I'm really enjoying that Hamura Ōtsutsuki brought me here." The god-trainer said. It felt good to vent how she felt like that, but she knew she was going to feel guilty later.

At the casual comment, the fox's eyes widened, utterly shocked, freezing.

 **"WAIT...WHAT...?! Wha... _WHAT_ did you just SAY?! My _UNCLE_ sent you here?!"**

Now it was _Cus_ who was shocked! "Excuse me... _WHAT?!_ My benefactor is your what?!" Aiming her staff at the fox and having the orb glow, the aura also appeared around the downed beast and he felt his wounds heal.

Sitting up on his haunches, the fox stared at his former opponent. **"My uncle Hamura's brother, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, my father...he generated my siblings and me. Divided raw energy into nine separate bodies and gave each of us a process he used is explained to have initially involved the administration of imagination, and the spiritual energy to create physical forms from nothingness. Then, through the application of vitality, and the physical energy which forms, he would breathe life into the resulting creations..."**

Cus nodded. Seeing as she dealt with gods all the time, she was used to things like that, so it was perfectly normal to her and she accepted the explanation. "So...what is your name, then?" she asked.

 **"My name's Kurama."** the biju grunted. **"Don't care to tell it to people...but everything my father and uncle did had a purpose to it, if uncle brought you here, had to have good reason. That makes it so you need to know who I am. So...what was with the bipolar bit? First you're too childish and carefree, then you turn cold as ice before beating on me?"**

Cus sighed, "I am sorry for that, but what you said brought up memories I hate...It...it isn't something I want to talk about, but...Hamura brought me here to rebuild my life after literally having everyone and everything that mattered to me..." she looked away, unable to continue.

Kurama blinked. So, she was so childish in order to distract herself from the pain of her loss, then? He could understand that. **"I see, my erasure comment triggered bad memories, earned that beating, then...and what made you so interested in the brat I'm stuck in?"**

"I was asked by your uncle to "not let the world his elder brother created come to an end.", so, I decided to apply my craft as an instructor. And luckily, I found someone with the potential to help make it so that happens. Naruto has the potential, just needs to have his own ability developed first so he's strong on his own merits as opposed to depending on your power." Cus said.

 **"Heh...him strong on his own? Ha! That's a good one!"**

At that, Cus frowned sharply, "Now see here! It's obvious he has lackluster excuses for mentors who didn't know how to teach him properly! Blaming the student for the failing of his mentors, whom I'm guessing all knew you were in here and how you make things more complicated yet didn't take that fully into account, is hardly fair!"

Kurama blinked before musing that over, **"...Fair enough...I'll give you that one, girl."**

"So...noticed that attack of yours had a decent bit of power behind it. Not bad...Whatever makes this chakra stuff so much more fluidly adaptable and malleable than what most I know use is pretty interesting. Not bad from how far it's come based off what I was able to see in my staff when I saw what the brothers were like way back when...wonder what the ratio components are..." Cus admitted.

 **"Wait...you have the ability to see into the past as far back as you want, but couldn't learn about the elements of chakra from that?"** The fox couldn't help a disbelieving scoff.

"...I focused on seeing what Asura, Indra, and each of their respective, successive reincarnations' lives were all like, end to end for each, over everything else; especially if it turns out that the information was something so common, I could look it up in a book in present day and get the same answers from it." Cus admitted.

Blinking a bit, Kurama nodded as he processed that information. Ok...he had to give this girl that. **"True...Seeing what Asura-nii-sama and the teme's lives, all of them, were like is important."** Certainly more so than, as she had put it, information that was so common that it could be looked up in a modern-day book and get the same answers.

"Also...if by teme, you mean Indra, I can see why...that Madara Uchiha guy who was his last reincarnation was especially nasty..." Cus pointed out, only to trail off as the massive construct gawked at that...then anger quick replaced the stunned expression.

 **"HE WAS WHO?!"** The fox roared **, "Oh that little...! Oh...now I...RRRRAAAAGGGHHHH! Just when I thought that for how much I utterly and completely loathe and despise that bastard couldn't get any worse...! Indra...! He was INDRA?!"**

"Relax, Kurama...you were the one who said everything your father and uncle did was for a reason right? So if I'm a martial arts teacher and Hamura felt it would be best if Naruto and me where around one another, what does that say?" The angel pointed out. Cus wasn't at all surprised by the fox's outrage over the discovery. According to Hagoromo himself, Indra was an ineffectual loner who had the power to accomplish anything he put his mind to by himself, and as a result couldn't comprehend the value of caring for others and was ultimately consumed by hatred.

His father, Hagoromo, treated the flaw in his eldest son's character like it like his own fault for choosing Indra's clearly superior (in so many ways) brother as his successor, but he wasn't forced into it; Indra was responsible for his own actions. There were embers smoldering within Indra that his father had overlooked. But the thing was, those dark feelings were already there by Indra's own choice, they just needed to be coaxed to the surface.

The night before the old Sage's death, Indra chastised his father for being afraid of someone named Kaguya's power instead of seeking to understand it, before proclaiming that he would reincarnate over and over until Ninshu was a thing of the past. And Indra's reincarnations were never any better! Heck, the creep's mindset had been what started the Uchiha/Senju feud and fostered an "It's-All-About-Me" attitude in his descendants. Sure, Indra's bad traits were helped along, but ultimetly, Indra wasn't forced into it; he was responsible for his own actions; but his father, Hagoromo, treated it like his own fault for choosing Indra's clearly superior (in so many ways) brother as his successor instead.

Kurama froze, eyes widened in shock as her logic dispelled his anger. "Go on..."

"Well, since you're in him, I'm guessing you overheard my telling Naruto about this?" Cus asked, making a small destruction orb in one hand, the other drumming her fingers against her staff, "And if it can destroy just about anything, right down to the soul...think of what it could do to Indra...even if Naruto never uses it on the current Indra, with how proud of his power that guy is, just think how he'll take it if his opponent has a skill like that and he can't even force them to need to use it on him? How crazy would that make him? Destroy him so completely that he'll never be able to be reborn again, or hit him in the ego and crush his pride beyond all repair no matter what lifetime he's reborn into."

Despelling the destruction orb, she continued. "All I ask in return is that you don't turn Naruto into a berserker like you did while using Naruto's body as an avatar when we fought each other earlier and he was up to four tails of your power. This is some highly volatile stuff, after all; no need to have my pupil have more to worry about with you causing him to go on a power overload-induced rampage while there's an element like this kind of energy in play as a factor. Deal?" Cus asked.

 **"Done! Ahahahahahahah! Either way, Indra-teme gets crushed! Either his body, or his oh-so-precious ego! HA! I LOVE IT!"** Kurama cackled.

"Ok. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find my student." Cus said with a smile, excusing herself. Pushing her way through the bars again, she was off, leaving a vindictively smirking, sentient energy construct in her wake.

Casting her sensory skills outwards again, the angel nodded to herself. Ah...There he was. But who were those other two signatures she picked up? Shrugging, the trainer decided it wasn't an issue at the moment, so it wasn't something that she felt the need to do anything about. Besides, those two additional presences didn't seem to radiate any hostility. So no threat, no worries.

But back to the matter at hand, the angel resumed her seeking out Naruto's mental cognition of himself in his mindscape. Traveling down the dimly lit halls for a while, she stopped, finally spotting her quarry. Cus noticed Naruto was in a copy of the orange and black outfit that she'd replaced. It made her pout a bit, but since this was his mindscape, she figured he was just drawing on memories for how he appeared and was used to his old clothes.

Going over to him, she tapped Naruto on the shoulder, making him jump and whip around in a fighting stance, causing the angel to giggle.

"Cus-sensei? Wha...how...?" Naruto said, shocked at seeing her here.

"What? Did you really think just my knocking out cold in the real world meant I was going to let you slack off on training now, did you, Naruto?" she teased.

At that, he stopped and contemplated what his new sensei said, "...Bushy Brows and Bushier Brows would like you, Cus-senesi." The Uzumaki admitted after a moment.

"Huh?" Cus asked with a slight tilt of her head that made Naruto have to look away from her, finding the expression of confusion to actually be somewhat cute on his current teacher.

"...Don't ask..." Naruto shuddered.

Blinking, she shrugged, after all, if he knew what he was talking about, then best take his word for it. And anyways, she came in here to further train him.

"Ok...since I'm here now, how about we do some physical training then, Naruto?" Cus asked her student and he looked excited to hear that and Cus then made a giant ring like an arena in the mindscape. Seeing this, Naruto looked on in wonder until he heard Cus cough into her fist to get his attention and Naruto then stood in a fighting stance as he braced himself for a real beating of his lifetime, as he knew Cus wasn't going to go easy on him and he wouldn't have it any other way...

* * *

After Cus exited the mindscape (having given Naruto's mental self a sound thrashing), she smiled as Naruto groaned, falling flat on his back. On the plus side, Naruto had to confess, Cus-Senesi had a point. Staying still for meditation WAS going to be easier when his body was exhausted. Not only was he physically tired, but he was mentally drained.

Sheesh...where all her sessions going to be like this?!

As he lay there, he suddenly found his vision obscured by purple, black, and light blue as Cus

"Resting up?" she asked, smiling.

Naruto groaned in reply, "Trying to...sheesh sensei, did you go in there just to beat on me?!"

At that, the young-looking humanoid shook her head, "Nope, that was just extra training. Real reason was to make it so you wouldn't need to worry about the red energy driving you rabid any longer." she confessed.

At that, Naruto tensed.

"Oh come on, Naruto; did you really think I wouldn't notice there was something fishy about your energy after seeing what that idiot caused you to turn into? Besides, I already pointed out I saw him use a dangerous method on you in spite of your protests, what it turned you into, and the way that old fart turned tail and ran. You think I didn't overhear about the kyubbi?" his new teacher pointed out.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the curses and rejection as tears begin to build up behind his mask, 'That's it then...I guess she'll just abandon me and want nothing more to do with me, just like the villagers and older ninja in the village have done before...no matter what...I'm always going to be alone...thanks a ton, Yondaime-teme...' he thought bitterly.

While Naruto respected the Yondaime Hokage, there was no denying part of him utterly resented the man; his choice to seal the fox into him had made Naruto's life nothing but utter shit from day one!

However Naruto then felt a pair of hands touch his cheeks and he felt his gaze look up to see Cus' face looking into his eyes, "I'm not going to abandon you, Naruto. So stop thinking like that. Now, let's head to town to take a little break now, shall we?" Cus said while looking at Naruto straight into his eyes, she knew how he felt as he thought that she was going to leave him just because of what was in him, but she wasn't like that and she was going to drill it into his head, even if it killed her.

Naruto jerked away, surprised, "Wha...?!"

"Well...let me put it to you like this: Did you want the fox in you?"

"Well...no...was sealed into me the day I was born and I didn't even know about it until I was thirteen. Hell, I never found out about the Fox until I was almost killed as an Academy Student after that bastard Mizuki spilled the beans..." Naruto muttered.

Cus nodded, "I see. Then why would I reject you over something like that? It'd be pointless and stupid to fear and hate you over something that you weren't even aware of or choose. Honestly...what kind of moron does that?"

Naruto stared as her, even going as far as removing his mask to look her in the eye. "...What did you...?"

Cus blinked,"What? Is it really so strange?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nobody's ever told me that before...everyone back in my home...the way they looked at me, the way they treated me...it...it was hard. I never asked for the Yondaime Hokage to have sealed the Fox in me...but everyone knew it and hated me as if I was the fox..."

"...Then all due respect, Naruto, my opinion was this Yondaime Hokage is that he's a moron that saved a bunch of idiots who are too damn stupid to simply go outside, look around, and realize if you were this apparent monster everyone thought you to be, then why the hell is their home village still standing rather than the place they live be nothing but a crater filled with blood-drenched rubble, or why are any of them still even alive, especially after ten years if you were this massive, destructive creature that's apparently pure evil."

Naruto gaped at her. While he couldn't stand people belittling the Hokages, there was no denying what his new sensei made way too much sense. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

He sighed. Unsure.

A hand squeezing his shoulder caught his attention and Cus smiled at him, "Naruto...just rest. I admit I put you through a lot in a short amount of time, this just now included about you and what you have within you...just relax." she urged softly, then tapped him on the center of his forehead with the tip of her finger, using a minute trace of ki to effect his mind to urging it to shut off and rest.

As he felt the effects and his eyes dropped, Cus smiled. He needed his rest. While he was doing that, Cus got up and went to the nearest town to get set out to plan a physical conditioning regiment list for the first part of her training Naruto. And after a few minutes, she was looking one over as she got back to where he was still out like a light. It was pretty basic so far:

 _1000 Push-Ups_

 _1000 Sit-Ups_

 _1000 Squats_

 _1000 pull-ups_

 _50 kilometre run_

 _4 hours meditate/rest period_

 _Swim 1/4 Miles_

 _Kettlebell Turkish Get Up : 1 set, 3 reps each side_

 _Lateral Box Jump: 3 sets, 20 reps_

 _Rear Foot Elevated Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 sets, 6 Reps each side_

 _Single-Arm Dumbbell Flat Bench Chest Press: 3 sets, 6 Reps each side_

 _Standing Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3 sets, 6 Reps_

 _4 hours meditate/rest period_

 _Single-Arm Cable Lat Pulldown: 3 sets, 6 reps each side_

 _Pall of Press: 2 sets, 6 reps each side_

 _Standing Barbell Push Press (split stance): 3 sets, 6 reps_

 _Single Leg Dumbbell Deadlift: 3 sets, 6 reps each side_

 _Standing Cable Chest Fly: 3 sets, 6 reps_

 _4 hours meditate/rest period_

 _Bent-Over Barbell Row: 3 sets, 6 reps_

 _Half-Kneeling Cable Wood Chop: 2 sets, 6 reps_

 _Single-Arm Kettlebell Snatch: 3 sets, 20 reps each side_

 _Barbell Back Squat: 3 sets, 6 reps_

 _Bent-Over Dumbbell Row: 3 sets, 6 reps each side_

 _4 hours meditate/rest period_

 _Single Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets, 6 reps each side_

 _Standing Cable Low Row: 3 sets, 6 reps_

It wasn't too bad a start as far as physical conditioning went. But what she needed was somewhere privet that would allow her and her new student to really cut loose. There was a reason Gods of Destruction had their own planets, after all. Not having a resource like that would cause a need for major downscaling of what they did. The need to avoid collateral damage would be a problem. Especially with the reserves Naruto had. An overdeveloped energy network and denser energies like he had weren't capable of overly finite techniques.

The angel sighed as the thoughts made her start remembering teaching Rumsshi-sama back in Universe 10 again. As she sat down, she jumped up when, right as her cheeks touched where her butt would go with where she was sitting, a drawn-out sound drew her attention. Looking at what she'd sat on, she felt her eye twitch at what she'd fallen for.

A whoopee cushion?!

Picking the aforementioned item up, the angel felt a smile tug on her lips, even as she rolled her eyes. Naruto did warn her he'd make her the butt of his jokes and pranks if her thoughts turned to what had happened to Universe 10. She felt thankful for that, even if it put her at the butt of things he did since the distractions helped.

Mature, no; sweet, yes.

It was actually endearing. While he couldn't do anything about her old home's erasure (though she was beginning to suspect that he would if he were able to), he could at least try to keep her spirits up, keep her smiling, and give her as much comfort as he could offer realistically. And all this because he didn't want to see her in pain when they were only slightly better than acquaintances with how much they knew one another despite how she'd declared herself his new sensei.

"...Gowasu-sama would have liked him..." Cus sighed, thinking on the Kai made her eyes sting with tears she wanted to let fall. Just how much was she going to be reminded of how her universe was taken away?!

She was brought out of her thoughts as music reached her ears, making her turn to see what was making it. Naruto walked up to her, his mask pushed up slightly and the source of the sound in his hands: an ocarina. One that had very clear mending done to it. A long, jagged diagonal crack running down it's surface.

"Got up a little bit ago. Thought you could use some company..." he said, lowering the instrument.

The angel smiled, there he was...butting in on her grief so the loss didn't break her, again. "Thank you...didn't know you could play."

Looking at the ocarina, Naruto sagged, "...Practiced a lot with this ocarina. It's something I kept as a memento from a friend. Lost his memory for a while...never told me his real name, but I ended up giving him the nickname "Menma" since I didn't know what else to call him..."

"Fermented bamboo?" Cus asked, raising a brow.

Naruto shook his head, "Long story...important part is that he was my friend..."

Cus frowned. Was? Oh...she wasn't going to like this. "What happened?"

"Situation and circumstance...all because of some big wig's bad choices, the place he called home was run into the ground, so the idiot goes and let's in the worst of the worst, and that only causes more problems. Because of that, whole place was demilitarized because when the idiot learned he let in a snake in the grass, he also learned it made those lands enemies. Thing was, with the entire territory demilitarized like that, what about the solders and the rest who fought for it, both as there home and way for a living? Most had to resort to becoming bandits. Menma...he was caught up in that. found out he tried erasing his own memory because there were things he wanted to forget, but he still wanted to do the right thing, even sacrificed himself to make sure innocent people were safe."

Naruto sighed and looked away from Cus, "That's what happens when the people have fools or cowards running over their governments and they never think of the people or their needs, and it can change the people's view on life... It's sad really..."

Cus stared. That...that sounded almost almost just like her story! She looked down, a smile tugging her lips as she realized why her student was telling her this.

A life ruined by the situation and circumstances that resulted from someone else's choice and actions...Cus clenched a trembling fist as her thoughts turned to Zen-Oh and everything he had childishly taken away!

Despite her size, appearance, and personality; she was actually the oldest of the Angels among her siblings. Ironic that she was the black sheep of her family then. But then, by the token of being the eldest, she'd existed long enough to develop a conscience. She'd lived and seen enough to understand that without emotion, you have no regard for the lives of others since you lack things like compassion or guilt. She understood what it was Hamura Ōtsutsuki had said, the harm caused when those that are powerful embrace apathy was a dangerous mix before bringing her to this universe.

Wrapping her arms around Naruto, she nuzzled herself against him, "...Thank you, Naruto..." she said, knowing the story was personal to him. Cus felt she needed to hear that. So this was why Hamura Ōtsutsuki sent her here. A tit-for-tat deal, as it were. She'd help Naruto improve, and he'd help her mentally and emotionally. And she was lucky enough to have met someone that wanted to keep from having things ruin her. She could work with that.

Smiling, Naruto put the instrument to his lips and resumed playing, happy when he felt Cus relax as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the tune.


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHOR NOTE: THANKS EVERYONE! That plagiarist on wattpad, HunterWater0...**

 **THEIR PROFILE IS GONE!**

* * *

Sitting at a bar located in Mount Myōboku, all Jiraiya could do was wallow in his misery. Never before had he felt so pathetic.

If anyone saw him now, they wouldn't cower in awe or assume he was a Sannin, all they would see was a drunken, lecherous old man who had the disposition of a child with an overly-eccentric and boisterous personality. He supposed that in his heart, he was always a child. He could face death and battle, but he had never wanted responsibility. Being responsible frightened him. Always had.

Being a godfather? Where was he for OVER TEN YEARS of Naruto's life? Being a teacher? How much did he actually teach anything to his student before going to an adult club?! Hell, Naruto was almost maimed in his first run-in with Itachi and Kisame while Jiraiya was out flirting!

Some "Sannin"...some ninja...some godfather...he left out a scoff of self-disgust.

Jiraiya could practically feel Minato, Kushina, and Sarutobi-sense glaring at him for his utter failure at being both a godfather and a mentor. To think a little girl had sent him running scared after she had to step up and fix his messes...it was a low point for him. He really felt worthless.

"Oi, Jiraiya-boy. What's eatin' ya?"

Looking up from his drink, the man grunted in acknowledgement of Shima and Fukasaku as the two elderly toads came over. Just great. Exactly what the skirt-chaser _didn't_ want right now: company.

"...Recent mentor role blew up in my face...Minato's kid...current Kyubbi Jinchūriki...I just...it was like he couldn't get what I was teaching him...then some squirt kid showed up and not only salvaged things, but took my student...now here I am..."

At that, Fukasaku frowned at the white-haired man. "Couldn't get what you were teaching? You were just as bad as you're describing him; and you didn't have a Biju to drag you down. If he's a bad student as a Jinchūriki, what does that make you?"

Jiraiya winced in guilt at Fukasaku's words. He was right; Jiraiya had been a terrible learner and struggled through everything taught to him when he was Naruto's age. To make matters worse in comparison, Naruto had a valid reason for his difficult time learning while Jiraiya did not; and he ignored that just to save face and not be told off by someone less than half his age.

He sighed as he realized his success with the Fourth Hokage had gone to his head, making him arrogant as a supposed instructor. Minato was a genius in comparison to Naruto, not needing anything other than someone to point him in the right direction. And that was all Jiraiya had done; show him the first steps before Minato took over on his own. And then Minato went on to teach Jiraiya the Rasengan! His own student was the one to teach him a powerful jutsu!

"You fucked this one up, Jiraiya," he muttered to himself, self-loathing in his tone. He sighed and stood up.

Past time he did the right thing. Now to go find Naruto and get his student back...

* * *

Naruto panted, his whole body felt like it was full of red hot, steel pins that were trying to push their way out of his skin. She might not look it, but Cus was an utter slave driver when it came to training! And Cus was obsessed (or at least it seemed that way) with ensuring nearly every moment was spent with Naruto honing his abilities, not a single day was wasted. She was like an EXTRA psychotic, sawed-off, possessed sadist!

Yet his eyes still burned with will and rebellion, if Cus was going to pressure him and his ability so much, then he'd take that pressure to become a diamond. Yet there was one thing that bothered him about her training...

"Come on, sensei! Come at me full force!" He demanded.

Cus sighed, "Naruto...you aren't ready yet for me to use my full power in our spars..."

"Then how will I ever be if you keep holding back?! I know I'm not there yet, but I need to know the level I need to be to handle it, and the only way to do that is to see it first-hand!" The Uzumaki argued.

The angel actually blinked at that, ok...she'd admit, that was actually a fair point. "Fine...if you can get me to use more than just my left hand against you, I'll step up your training, then."

It took all of the blond's self-control to not flinch visibly at that. Odd as it sounded, he was starting to view Cus' left hand as a personal nemesis of his. Every spar, she beat him into the ground using just that one hand. He could never get past it and it was used to rag doll him in every instance! Still...if beating that hurdle was what was needed to get Cus to come at him with everything she had...

Taking a deep breath and forcing his exhaustion aside, Naruto stood and got into a stance while his teacher looked calm, just standing straight with her rod in one hand. Naruto charged with a burst of speed, as he was in range, Naruto sent a punch which Cus just sidestepped to the left and poked the blond teen in the head. The action sent Naruto flying backwards and tumbled along the ground, causing dirt and dust to shoot up.

As the dust went away, Naruto went at it again with multiple jabs and a roundhouse kick. The Angel moved her head side to side dodging the punches, with occasional twists of her body, then grabbed the leg and playfully began to spin him around when she grabbed his leg, getting a comical scream from him before letting go.

Naruto was sent flying, Cus vanished at high speed and appeared behind the whiskered teen who poofed, revealing that it was a Shadow Clone. Naruto jumped up and tried to grab the girl from behind, key word was 'tried'. Cus vanished again and smacked the blond on the head, revealing another Shadow Clone.

So...he used the dust cloud from his landing as a smokescreen, huh? Not bad...but "not bad" wasn't the same as "good".

Looking where the dust cloud had been, there was now a fairly large hole that went straight into the earth.

Cus jumped back just in time to see the masked, whiskered teenager burst through the ground in front of her with a raised fist that would have connected with her jaw if she had moved any slower. The uppercut couldn't have missed her by more than a couple of centimeters and judging by the wind that came in its wake, lightly slapping her in the face, she came to the conclusion that the punch most likely would have shattered her jaw if it had been allowed to hit its intended target.

Cus lashed out first, her left hand catching Naruto just bellow the ribs in a knife thrust, causing him to double over at the blow before the angel picked him up by the throat. "You know...you shouldn't have challenged me while you were still weary from training, Naruto...Kisses!" Cus smiled, before slamming Naruto into the ground hard enough to knock him out.

By the time Naruto awoke, he found Cus had managed to lay out an entire picnic with a bowel filled with plenty of small dumplings for them both to eat.

Naruto groaned, knowing he lost.

"Looks like you're staying at your current level for now. Oh well...let's eat, Naruto." She said. As she sat down on the mat, Naruto was confused, "Wait...Just like that? No spars? No push-ups or sit-ups? No sudden surprise attacks, even?"

Cus giggled to her student's questions, "I know I've been running you into the ground and even further than that, but even Gods need to take a break every once in a while... and I see that you've been working very hard in your training, so consider today a "day off". Now, you are free to eat."

Naruto, still suspicious about all of this, sat down across from Cus and grabbed some chopsticks and quickly took a dumpling from the bowel while never taking his eyes off his sensei.

"Naruto...do you really think I did all this just to for you to be a warrior constantly? Relax and please, enjoy." Cus said with a smile as she began to eat.

Hearing that, Naruto seemed to relax a bit and even gave Cus a smile, "Thank you, sensei... and to be honest, this does look really good..." As Naruto then opened his mouth to eat, Cus suddenly snatched the dumpling with her chopsticks and zoomed back to her seat.

"HEY!?" Naruto yelled at seeing what his sensei just did and she looked like nothing had just happened and was chewing on the snacthed dumpling, "I said you're free to eat, Naruto..."

Naruto then attempted to get another only this time, Cus swatted Naruto's arm upward sending the dumpling into the air only to snatch it again and she then ate it.

Seeing this, Naruto then narrowed his eyes at his sensei, "I said Naruto... You are free... to eat..." Cus said with a threatening tone in her voice as she then glared at her student.

"WELL, AM I!?" Naruto shouted at Cus.

"ARE YOU!?" Cus shouted back as she then twirled her chopsticks around like they were weapons.

Feeling he should have known this would happen, Naruto simply cracked his neck and snapped his chopsticks in a challenging manner.

Naruto then grabbed the bowl and threw it high into the air and Cus jumped after it, swiftly plucking each dumpling and eating them all until there was only one left, and that was when Naruto attempted to strike, as he jumped to catch it, only for Cus to follow him and intercept him by catching it first. But Naruto then knocked out of her chopsticks just as she was about to eat it and it landed right into the bowel, and both Naruto and Cus used their chopsticks to grab it but they also blocked each other in a chopstick battle, until Cus then slapped Naruto's hand with her chopsticks and then turned the bowel over as well as the others and began to spin them around in a rapid speed.

Naruto attempted to follow the bowels until he suddenly stopped Cus to reveal the dumpling but then Cus resumed their chopsticks duel Cus even used her fingers to "Kick" Naruto's fingers and he attempted to knock Cus' hand off balance by swinging his chopstick under her hand which she then dodged but she then countered.

Having enough of this, but smiling from this kind of "fight", Naruto then got rid of the bowel and sent the dunpling flying, but Cus then threw her chopsticks like a kunai, stabbing the dumpling through while the chopstick embedded in a tree branch.

Then they both attempted to claim the dumpling but Cus jumped off Naruto's head only for him to grab her ankle and he slammed her onto the ground, then they saw the dumpling slid off the chopstick and Cus attempted to get Naruto to let go of her but Naruto held on while doing a flip and they then began a little fight under the tree thus causing the dumpling to fall, Naruto attempted to catch it with his mouth but Cus then closed his mouth with her remaining chopstick as the dumpling then gently rolled off his face.

But Naruto then sent it back into the air with a kick and he and Cus began to fight again, but occasionally kept the dumpling from falling onto the ground as they fought. Cus then kicked the dumpling and Naruto chased after it. Fully smiling, Cus then threw the chopstick away and chased after Naruto while grabbing her staff to polvolt herself over him, then she and Naruto resumed their battle.

Naruto and Cus batted while still making sure the dumpling didn't touch the ground until Naruto got the advantage and kicked the dumpling a little further over Cus and when he landed, Naruto then finally caught the dumpling from the air and stood victorious as Cus smiled in pride at him.

After popping the dumpling into his mouth, the Uzumaki fell over, beyond dead tired.

If he wanted to eat, Cus made it into a fight like that! If he wanted, to sleep (or if he was run into the ground to where he passed out) Cus would enter his mindscape and make him endure training against her there! Thank all divinity and damnation she left him alone whenever he was going to the bathroom, at least! But basically, the only way she'd ever stop torturing him with the sheer load of training would be if he was dead!

In short, THIS was what Naruto expected training to be like! And he loved it! Besides, Cus managed to balance it out with making it a positive teaching experience. Lots of encouragement and praise. Kind words. If he was doing something wrong, she gave him a gentle nudge could help him in the right direction.

Before Cus had shown up, the trip itself had been very underwhelming for the Uzumaki who was expecting to learn most of the tricks and skills that the Toad Sage was capable of using.

That wasn't the case.

Instead, the first year was devoted solely to mastering basics that should have been gone over by Kakashi; his official teacher since he had been assigned to Team Seven. His taijutsu had been smoothed out so that he didn't fight like some common brawler, his chakra control exercises had increased in difficulty, and he had finally learned how to dispel genjutsu.

It bothered him that it took an entire year to fix those concerns when Kakashi should've noticed them much sooner. No doubt he helped Sasuke figure out _his_ own issues while he was teaching the Uchiha that damnable Chidori. He was going to hold onto that grudge for a while, considering how he had suffered being run through by that jutsu _twice_ during his fight with Sasuke.

The second year had Naruto practice with his Rasengan while also trying to develop one that was larger; thereby giving it more power. While he had improved greatly in his chakra control, he couldn't make the larger Rasengan without the assistance of a clone. Thankfully, though, he was finally able to use a standard Rasengan one-handed.

It was halfway through the second year that Jiraiya decided to start the _real_ training. To Naruto's dismay, the Toad Sage felt that the best training Naruto could do was practice using the Kyuubi chakra; which he honestly hated to use.

Sure, the power boost was phenomenal; but the aftermath of the chakra was not a fair trade in his eyes. His body was left weak, and his chakra coils would practically rage with pain due to the corrosive chakra being pumped through them. Being the Jinchūriki of the chakra helped, but only by so much.

And then, Jiraiya had the brilliant idea of loosening the seal so that _more_ of that twisted chakra could be accessed. Not once, but TWICE! All because of how the Toad Sage focused more on his "research" than actually training his so-called _apprentice_.

He sighed, feeling depressed about the lack of real value this trip had. But the time away from the Hidden Leaf was being wasted in his eyes. Everything he had done – barring the use of the Kyuubi's chakra – could have easily been done within the village walls. He had constantly worried about the idea that by the end of the trip, he'd barely be any stronger. Cus had fixed that concern easy!

"You are getting better, Naruto...but you keep overtaxing your body. I know you have stamina in spades and heal quickly, but those are no reason to ignore when you need rest." Cus told him.

After chewing and gulping the food in his mouth, Naruto sighed, "I know...I just feel I need to push myself that hard to make up for all the time I could have been getting training this hard when my other teachers before you brushed me off, sensei."

At that, Cus frowned. She was well aware of the slights against her pupil that his former senseis had done after using her staff to see how her predecessor had taken to teach Naruto in the past, it left her feeling it was amazing poor Naruto had gotten as far as he had!

She already knew Jiraiya's faults, but then there was who the incompletely-trained sage had taken over for: Kakashi.

While Kakashi was one of the top Jonin in the village of Konoha and more or less it's resident jutsu master. But other than that, Cus was deeply unimpressed. She had seen that Kakashi was a porn addict who was constantly late to everything (barring the new releases of Icha Icha anyway), he was a sub-par teacher at best. The man had passed them on the barest hint of teamwork. Kakashi had absolutely no idea how to train newly minted genin. All he did was get on their nerves by telling them to work as a team, and yet he never told team seven how, seeing as the academy didn't exactly teach teamwork like they should, even though it was one of the biggest requirements to becoming a genin in the first place, yet he seemed to think that they did.

Kakashi's treatment of Naruto was wrong starting from the bell test. How on earth do you expect a boy who had been ostracized by his own village for simply being alive to just grasp the concept of teamwork at the drop of a hat like that? Naruto never had anyone really looking out for him, especially not his classmates. While the exercise would be understandable for Sasuke (if he weren't such a stuck up prick) as he has been pampered by his village, it made no sense for Kakashi to reasonably expect Naruto to rely on two people who have never been there for him, namely Sasuke and Sakura, to help him. Naruto, despite his outgoing personality, is a loner from the beginning. What kind of idiot was Kakashi not to be able to see that anyway?

Next was the training. Or lack thereof. Listing what Kakashi taught Naruto was easy: Climbing Trees using his energy, and...that's it. Kakashi regarded Sasuke more highly than Naruto, that much was pitifully obvious; as he watched Neji fight Hinata, he thought that not even Sasuke could stand up to him, as if that emo-bastard set the bar for Genin standards; also when he told Naruto that he couldn't train him, he blatantly said he had more important things to take care of: training Sasuke. How Kakashi abandoned Naruto during the one month break of the Chunin exam was more than a little messed up. Granted that things worked out for the best, but Kakashi didn't know that would happen. What exactly was better chakra control going to do to help Naruto defeat a Hyuuga prodigy who had no problem with attempting to murder members of his own family!? He probably planned on Naruto losing, the bastard.

First and foremost, if you can't train more than one student at once, don't take a three man squad. Secondly, Kakashi knew the Kage Bunshin. Why couldn't he have at least taken two seconds to cross his fingers and made one to instruct Naruto, just crossing his fingers, how hard was THAT for a Jonin of Kakashi's renowned and caliber? Thirdly, and this was the kicker, knowing Kakashi, he'd more than likely have the gall to reprimand Jiraiya for teaching Naruto the Rasengan after he had taught Sasuke the Chidori! He actually believed that Sasuke would use it to protect his fellow shinobi of Konoha. Didn't he spend a lot of alone time with Sasuke? You'd think he was a little more observant of the fact that everything Sasuke did was toward killing Itachi...especially since the prick had said that!

Iruka had been the most attentive, but as a teacher in the academy back in Konoha, he had been unable to focus on aiding Naruto's personal development as much as he would have liked to since he had to give all the students equal attention and time as a group. That at least was understandable and something Cus could forgive.

"...Hey, Cus-sensei?" The whiskered young man called, getting her attention.

"Hm? Yes, Naruto?"

"Where did you learn to fight like this and get to be such a good teacher, anyways?" her student asked, honestly curious.

At that, Cus cringed. That would mean telling him about Universe 10...she sighed, "...I...I know I should explain that, Naruto...but...not yet...please..." she pleaded, feeling horrible. She knew he was just out to get to know her as a person, and she **_wanted_** to tell him, but with the sheer level of loss she endured, she wasn't ready. The hurt was too much...feeling herself start to tear up, she squeezed her eyes shut. She hated feeling this way! But apathy was too dangerous, especially with an angel's battle power levels! before she was enveloped in warmth.

Looking to the source, Cus' eyes widened...she should have figured! Naruto was holding her, trying to offer what comfort he could. The dam burst at that and she clutched the ninja for everything she had and started bawling. All the while, he held her close and offered what comfort he could, an anchor in the storm of upsetting emotions she was caught up in.

As she clung to him, Cus had to admit a doubt to herself: Naruto was too sweet to carry out the duties of a God of Destruction. Not that Cus minded that personally, but it was something that would no doubt cause problems later on. Thing was, she didn't want Naruto to change. Casting aside the things that made him who he was? The angel couldn't bare that happening to Naruto. She felt so confused! She needed a God of Destruction, but not someone that would abuse the power! In that regard, Naruto was perfect! But she wanted him to stay true to who he was! And if Cus were honest, she HATED seeing lives destroyed! Why couldn't Gods of Destruction settle for doing things like vaporizing uninhabited worlds?!

It was all so frustrating!

As she was mulling that over, a sudden sensation at her sides made her yelp, and as she tried pulling away, Naruto

Before long, she was laughing out loud. And she knew both the cause and the culprit. Naruto! He was...he was tickling her?!

"Oi! No fair!" Cus laughed.

"ALL'S fair in love and war, sensei! You're being broody! Snap out of it!" Naruto countered.

Still laughing, Cus managed to tap her staff on the ground and the orb glowed before a whirlwind kicked up and Naruto was sucked into it, the orb's light ceasing as he was pulled within it. Standing by using her staff, the angel caught her breath, "...Ahhh...I admit I needed that! Still...bit of timeout for you! Enjoy it in there!" Cus teased, smiling while looking at the orb of her staff.

Her student really was a good soul. No question. She really felt she owed Hamura again. She could thank that old specter for all eternity and couldn't be enough. Still...preparing Naruto as best she could was a nice start, seeing as Indra was still out there somewhere.

Looking at the orb, the light blue-skinned girl activated it again and went into the staff herself. Needed to make sure Naruto was ok, after all.

Going into the pocket dimension of her staff, Cus found herself in a groundless void with a hazy atmosphere like a dense fog. Due to its abundance of godly ki, the pocket dimension had immense gravitational pressure that made it hard to move about (not that aspect was a problem for her, though), and time in the dimension flowed differently here.

Looking around, Cus grinned. Ah...there he was.

Floating over to where her student was suspended, she smiled. "Hello Naruto."

"...Gahhh...! Sensei...where are we? Why's it so heavy here...?" he groaned, the pressure restraining him uncomfortably.

"Special training space." Then she blinked, seeing him immobilized by the environment, Cus smirked deviously, "You know, my little seito, there's something I've wanted to do to you ever since I first met you..."

Naruto's eyes widened in horror as Cus removed and held his mask in her right hand while her left hand reached out towards his face. Oh no...not that...! Anything but that! He didn't want to have a funeral for his dignity like this!

Cus lightly ran her thumb along his left top whisker mark. Naruto's eyes instantly drooped and a small rumble that could be described as a purr came from his chest as she stroked the thumb over the grooves of each mark. Momentarily surprised, Cus blinked, but found herself enjoying this. So too, did Naruto, it seemed, as he began to subconsciously nuzzled his cheek against her hand, seeking more comfort from her fingers' gentle touch. Beaming in delight, the angel ran her fingers over another whisker mark, earning another drawn out purr and causing Naruto's eyes to shut and she continued to run her fingers across the whisker marks on the blond's cheeks, causing him to purr in content.

"...oh god...senesi...please stop..." Naruto whimpered at the gentle touches being applied to his facial markings. He was sensitive there, and his pride would never be able to live down if anyone found out.

"Nope! You have to **make** me stop, Naruto; otherwise, you're all mine to pet and toy with!" Cus laughed. She just found this adorable seeing her student turned into a purring mess like a common house pet. She could already tell this was something Cus was going to be more than happy to exploit as a newfound "weakness".

His head turned into Cus's hand and his eyes drifted shut while pleasurable tingles went down his spine. When she pulled away, Naruto released what sounded like a small pitiful whimper until his eyes flickered open and he shook his head to rid himself of the dream-like bliss that fogged his mind due to her fingers' gentle ministrations.

"...Please don't tell me I..." He asked hesitantly.

"Adorable!" Cus beamed.

Naruto groaned. Cat was out of the bag!

"Oh, Naruto, relax...of course I won't tell! It'll be our little secret."

Still mortified, Naruto felt a tiny bit relieved Cus wouldn't tell anyone what happened if his marks were stroked.

"But like I said: if you want me to stop, you'll have to make me. So whenever we're in this space, I will enjoy petting you like that. Since this space is designed to help teach power through extreme control. You see, what most don't know is nearly everyone subconsciously leaks their energy while they attack or raise their energy. For that matter, it happens subconsciously, even doing base-level things; breathing, blinking, heart beating...that's where this pressure is from. To keep from being restrained by it, you need to hold your energy all within your body without letting it leak. Once you figure out that, you'll be able to move properly and stop me."

Naruto paled. As a Jinchūriki, he was willing to bet he had to deal with those "subconscious energy leaks" a lot since he had stores of energy that were hardly even human! No wonder moving was so hard in here!

"Energy control is an issue with you, Naruto. I understand that. Your internal energy network is overdeveloped and you have denser energies than normal; but do you feel it's fixable?"

Naruto rolled his eyes."Of course. Work hard enough and the impossible becomes possible. I just wish energy exercises wasn't all my training until you showed up entailed, sensei."

Cus nodded at his answer. "In that case, I'll leave you here for a bit to at least try and get used to this place. But first..." placing her hand on his chest, she sent a bit of energy into him and directed it to cause a shift in his body's functions before pulling away, "There! Now your body's need for things like food and waste disposal are cut off in this space. Should make it easier with less to worry about when you're in here. ciao for now, Naruto." she told him, putting his mask back on his face then exited the dimension.

After she emerged, she took up and started twirling her staff casually as the angel walked off, whistling to herself. Then she suddenly stopped a a thick plume of white smoke erupted right in front of young-looking humanoid gained a flat expression as the cloud dispersed to show Jiraiya in front of her, a serious expression on his face.

"What do _you_ want?"

"I'm here to get my student back, you brat." The sage growled.

Cus snorted. "Yeah right...when were you ever a teacher to him?"

Jiraiya frowned at the remark, but stood his ground and instead, slipped into the stance for the Kawazu Kumite fighting style used exclusively by those who trained with the toads of Mount Myōboku.

"You really wanna do this?" Cus couldn't help but laugh. Seeing the old man remaining how he was, she shrugged and planted the end of her staff in the ground before walking forward a few paces, hands behind her back. She remained in her pose as a razor sharp smile graced her features.

Challenge issued and accepted.

"Your funeral, old man...just know if you'd taken being a mentor to him this seriously to begin with, none of this would be happening. Let's rumble!"Cus pointed out.


End file.
